Thank you.

It won’t help much to say this especially since it’s already been said. Practice practice practice. When I first started it took me hours to change
A flat. Now it’s just a couple minutes. A new tire might take 20 minutes.

A good tip I learned that might feel frustrating at first is to make sure you’re finishing at the other side of the stem. That’s where the least amount of pressure is. While it’s a tough go around to get everything to seat right once you’re finishing it will change a whole lot about the effort.

Anyway, as it’s been said. Just practice. Practice watching tv. Practice every day. Eventually you’ll have it and you’ll wonder why it was ever a big deal.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

Thanks to everyone for the advice, and sorry about the whining. The mechanic showed me some good tips and it made a big difference. He did the first tire and I did the second. I was able to actually install the tire using only my hands, no tire levers or other tools. He gave me a good pair of thin glovers made of leather and mesh which made it easier. Two good tips helped make the difference. One, make sure the valve stem was inserted properly and pushed back a little toward the rim. Two, use the right thumb to work one side of the tire when it is almost on, and use the palm of the left hand to push hard, right next to the right thumb, and it popped right on.

I also used a hairdryer to warm up the tire a bit this morning and that seemed to soften the tire. After the mechanic left, I practiced with an old tire and spare wheel I had laying around, and it took two minutes. New tires are much more difficult, but now at least I think I can do it.

Good for you. It's rubbish when maintenance takes too long and gets in the way of a good bike ride. Hope you've got enough of the weekend left to get some bike time in.

This is a great idea.

I hired a local bike shop mechanic to come to my house and watch me do all the basics, and then teach me how to tear apart and put back together a bike. Among the best $200 I've ever spent in cycling/triathlon.

I have come a LONG way since then and can now confidently build road/TT bikes from the frame up and prepare my wife's bikes for her A races, as well as maintain our fleet of 6 bikes.

It was only probably 2018 when I was really not confident that I'd be able to fix a flat or change a tire.

Also, get this, it's awesome. Makes getting tires off SO much easier. At least for at-home tire swaps. Fine for in a moderate/large bike saddle bag too.

PS. You'll still have times where you put the tire & tube on and it flats again. But it will get WAY less frequent and is avoidable with diligence. It's worth it to learn.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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Good job!

Great tips! I’ve just ordered the speedier lever in your link, for the next time I have to deal with those schwalbe marathons or similar, and I love the idea of hiring someone to come to your garage. Thanks for posting.

I applaud you. You sought the help and you got it! Good job.

Back in the day I was the roadie barely able to do it with levers. Sometimes a passerby would see me with the levers and insist on doing it themselves.

For me, personally, the tire in the rim bed in a kind of obsessive detail made a huge difference to me. Now I can do it by hand most of the time. Other small detail that did it for me was starting opposite the valve stem. At the valve the tire cannot optimally fit into the rim bed. That few mm can make the difference.

You also got the trick already for a new tire, warmth and time. Summer I'll leave new ones in a hot car. Winter leave it in the box and rest it on top of the warm air coming out of the vent in the house. Summer leave the rim it's going on in the cool house. Winter leave the rim it's going on outdoors in the cold. That little bit of thermal expansion/contraction difference can help also.

other tip (if you are at home) a bit of soapy water on the tire bed can help for the 1st mounting of a new tire.

This is great to see- thanks for sharing. I love cycling, but am mechanically challenged and it is a constant source of tension for me. Through practice I'm to the point where I can change a flat relatively quickly on my road bike, at least compared to my former bumbling self. But I ride with a group of 8-10 on weekends and I live in fear of getting a flat and having to change one with eyes on me, especially when it's cold and no one wants to stop for long. And on my tri-bike I have HED Jet 6+ that I'm honestly afraid to practice on because I'm sure I'll damage them. I know that they are harder to change so if they ever flatted in a race it would be a disaster.

I've always been jealous of those for whom the mechanical tinkering is part of the appeal as opposed to a hurdle to overcome. If my LBS held a series of classes to train me in the basics of bike repair, I'd sign up in a second.

I have watched my mechanic change a tire in the past but it did not click until I did it myself with him watching and giving direction. My goal is to spend an hour or more practicing on a spare wheel until I can do it easily and quickly and without any tools.

If I can do it then anyone can.

Good stuff, glad to hear that it worked. I have a friend who is a bike mechanic who showed me how to do a lot of basic maintenance that has helped over the years.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

At one point, I had about 20 wheels in my house. Some combinations are so bad, I struggle big time to mount the tire. You are lucky and keep that wheel and tire combo.
I have Zipp 858 and Zipp Super 9 disc in the back and luckily GP5000 tires go on very easily.

I helped a friend out as a bike mechanic for a few months. If anyone came into the shop and needed help in understanding how to adjust the barrel adjuster or change a tire, I'd just show them and let them do it in the shop. Any decent shop will help you with things like that, it's our sport and we want people to enjoy it.

One of the bike shops near me charges $20 for the labor to replace an inner tube. The tube is extra.

They also charge $30 to install a cassette, which takes about a minute.

That's pretty steep, usually the whole job is 15-20 here including the tube. Some klunky messy bikes take a while and the dry rotted tires can be a issue when they blow off the shitty tires, but usually it's a quick fix.

People sometimes come in a week or two later upset because it went flat again...

How would you feel about paying $40 to install a pair of brake pads.

I can do both very fast myself, but honestly, it's easily worth that to me to pay someone to do it for me. The only reason I don't for those two is that it takes me longer to drag my bike to the store than do it myself, but seriously, if I were already at the store and had my bike with me there for some other repair, I wouldn't hesitate to drop that cash in a second for those repairs, even if they are on the pricey side.