The repair that every cyclist should be able to do

I was the Good Samaritan yesterday. I made myself late (ahem, later) for work by stopping to help another cyclist who had a flat tyre. She had no patch kit, no tyre levers, no spare tube, no pump, no clue how to fix the problem—a dirty big nail hanging out of her tyre.

The funny thing is that she told me that she’d had a few flats in the last few weeks and the she’d been “meaning to get one of those” (that is, a patch kit). She also had an odd theory that having had a few flats, that she’d had her turn and now she’d be in the clear for awhile.

Don’t get me wrong, I was more than happy to help but it reminded me that if there’s a repair that every cyclist should know how to do, it’s fixing a flat tyre. This means every cyclist should carry the following kit:

• tyre levers: you’ve got to be able to get the tyre off

• spare tube: if you’re in a hurry, it’s easier just to throw on a new tube and fix the hole later

• patch kit: umm, sometimes you run out of spare tubes. Yeah, it happens.

• pump: make it a good one—if it don’t work, you don’t get air back in your tyre

• tools: any tools required to get the wheel off and/or back on

And, of course, the cyclist needs to know how to use this stuff. I can help a bit on that point but really, there’s no substitute for having a bash at it.

More on related topics

• From shed to bike shed
• A “pre-flight” check is worth the effort
• A most civilised repair
• Psssssst off
• A bugger of an evening