Don't remove the tire when fixing a flat. Pop off one side only with the tire levers and pull out the tube. The tire should never have to leave the rim.

This thread has me curious to see how some people fix a flat.

I haven't used tire levers in 20 years. I don't carry them. I find that I can't see the inside of the tire as well that way, so it's harder to see what came through or find the piece of radial wire, etc. It's at least as quick to pop the whole tire and tube assembly off at once by hand, since the first bead only takes seconds to remount by hand. And then I'm certain I've seen and removed any problems. I'm also backward from some experts, in that I mount the bead at the valve first and the opposite side last, by hand of course. Just my experience and method.

I usually just get on the phone and call my personal sag wagon, then magically it gets fixed...

Yeah, that's pretty much bass ackwards from what I would suggest.

I don't know what tire rim combo you are using but there is no way I could pop off the first bead by hand. That what the levers are for. Then I put them away as I never use levers to install a tire.

Egads. Snarkiness gone bad.

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You can just as easily find the spot in the tire to check by referencing the position of the valve stem in the wheel, regardless of if you have the label lined up. Lining up the label, while it sounds logical, is unnecessary -- but still used to justify yet another cycling ritual. I'm sure someone will chime in about the tire moving around the rim -- people have a hard time giving up their religions -- I'll just say you can believe what you want.

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I thought the different colored spoke was slightly heavier to balance the weight of the weld. Have I fallen victim to another one?

Not the first bead. Around here, we pop the whole thing off at once, both beads with the tube inside. It's not hard. I've done it with pretty much any rim and tire combo on which I've happened to change a tube. Exception for an early Cane Creek wheel that was almost impossible with levers.

It's just ordinary tribal behavior. We carry on the traditions of our elders.

Perhaps that tradition was based on the looser wire bead tire of yore. (Yes, I said "yore". So sue me!) I don't mean to suggest that you can't do it with a Kevlar folding bead, but I can't. At least not until a tire is very well worn in and loosened up from the stresses of being stretched on the rim and ridden many miles. I think the majority of us are talking about what we can do with our particular hand strength. There are outliers in every endeavor, but I am not one with regard to this.

In case anyone is surprised I say that wire bead tires are actually looser, that is in fact the case. Since they don't stretch as much over their lifetime as Kevlar bead tires do, they don't have to start out as tight. Lots of things are possible with wire bead tires that are not with folding tires.

The way Presta valves are made, they do not allow any sort of dirt or water entry when the valve sealing nut on the end is closed. A cap is not necessary to seal out the elements. This is not the case on Schrader valves with removable valve core. Dirt and moisture can get inside those and cause problems, making the valve cap a necessity.

thanks!

If you're going to use valve caps, they have to look cool!

:-)

Regretfully, I've done that twice. Never again.