E-Bikes & Bikes Customised to You
All right, Peter at Sixthreezero. Getting flats is really just part of riding a bike. It's going to happen eventually, most likely. So, the best thing to do is to prevent it and to be prepared for when it happens. Let me show you how.
Okay. There are many ways to make sure that you can prevent getting a flat in the first place and then there are other things you can do if you happen to get a flat and you're out. Really, what you don't want to have to happen is to get a flat seven, eight miles from home, 10 miles from home, or whatever, and have no way to fix it or to... Yeah, to fix it or prevent it. Anyway, I'm going to list a whole lot of things. There are a million ways to prevent flats on e-bikes or other bikes and so I'll just go through a list and I'll show you a few other items and some things that can help you out. Okay? The first thing is to prevent a flat.
One thing that a lot of people do is they use a product like Flat Out or Slime, which is kind of like this guy. On this particular one, we'll come up for a close-up later. On this particular one, you actually use the tool right up here at the top to remove what's called the valve core. It's the little valve that's actually inside what we call the valve here where you inflate the tire. And then that just opens the valve tube up completely so you can inject this gunk in there basically. And then you'll replace the valve core and then inflate your tire to the proper pressure. And then usually you want to rotate the tire a few times, maybe take it for a ride for a mile or so, and get this gunk fully distributed.
I've used this in my race wheel before, fantastic. Even at 120 PSI, I did get a puncture and the gunk caught that puncture. I lost about 30 pounds in there, so it went to about 90 pounds. But that was plenty, it was fine. A lot of times if you're going really fast and the front wheel goes out, that's kind of an automatic crash on a race bike anyway, so that held me. Slime is awesome. It works really well. But with the Slime, there's no air in this can, for instance. So, you're going to have to do this at home before you go out on your ride. This is not something you want to deal with after you get the flat. That's before you get the flat for prevention. Okay? So, there are these additives you can use, Slime, Flat Out, there are other ones as well.
You can get a new tube, a thorn, a thorn-resistant tube, which is a thicker tube. I think that's a really good thing because then the tube itself is stronger. And a lot of times, the sidewall of a tire is more vulnerable to puncture and some of the other solutions don't help prevent punctures from the sidewall as well as a thorn-resistant tube.
You can also get special belts, they're called tire liners, and they'll go around the circumference of the tire. And that'll be in the tread area, which is mostly what contacts the ground, but sometimes you can get a side puncture. But the tire liners are also very excellent. It's a very inexpensive way to protect your tire, protect your tube, and really not a lot can get through these things. They're very, very tough. It's kind of like the belt that you wear on your pants and it just belts the tread there. So, tire liners are a great way, thorn-resistant tubes.
Somewhat more expensive option is to get a stronger tire, like a Kevlar-belted tire. Those can be more costly though, but it's a good way to go. A lot of mountain bikers, of course, will use that because they're always hitting jagged rocks and other stuff in the terrain that they ride on. On your e-bike, you could do it potentially if you can find one that has the right size, depending on the type of e-bike that you have. For a fat tire. I think it would probably be really expensive. I haven't looked at the prices or if even if it's available for a Kevlar-belted fat tire. But I would just go with probably a thorn-resistant tube for that if you have a fat tire, would be a good way to go, but especially fill it up with the Slime or the Flat Out, rotate the tire. Well, fill it up with air, rotate the tire, et cetera.
Also, it's probably not as common for someone who's riding an e-bike because it's harder to change out the tube. If you get a flat out on your ride, it's easier on a regular bike generally or on the front wheel of an e-bike or if you have a mid-drive motor. But if you have a rear hub drive, those can be a little harder to switch out. We made a video about that. It's not really that hard, just takes a little bit longer. But if you want, then you can carry a tube with you. This is something that generally cyclists... Oops, excuse me. They're putting on a lot of miles. I used to ride about 10,000 miles a year actually. Sounds crazy, but it was true, 250 miles a week, year-round. And so I would always bring two tubes with me, fresh tubes.
I would also bring a patch kit, and a patch kit is very easy to use, but you need to do it properly. Actually, once you've patched a tube with one of these patch kits, they last a long time. You shouldn't really ride on a patched tube more than you have to. When you get home or maybe as soon as you can, I would switch it out to a fresh tube. But these things are really actually amazing. They work really well, but it does have a little instruction in it, but it has to be done absolutely properly. Done properly, these patch kits are amazing. Anyway, those are kind of your options.
Also, if you are going to bring a tube with you and that's what you want do, you're going to have to bring some sort of way to put air into the tire. You're not going to want to bring a floor pump like this, obviously, but you may be able to get a frame pump. These will fit into some frames. They wouldn't really fit into a frame like this, but it could be strapped onto something, like under the rack, or in a pannier bag or something like that, or put in the basket. They also make even tinier ones. It's just a lot of pumping because it's a very small amount of air that goes in with each pump. So, if you do want to be able to patch your tire... I mean, fix your flat on the ride, you're going to have to bring a way to get air into the tire once you fix it.
Another way is to use... They use CO2 cartridges. These are just little tiny cartridges filled with CO2, and then you dispense it with a little mechanism and it goes right to the tire. It's a really convenient way to not have to carry a pump. You can carry a few CO2 cartridges with you. That's actually what I used to do. I used to carry... Or that's what I do on my road bike, is I carry a tube, couple tubes, patch kit, and then the CO2 cartridges. So, those are your main options, but in this case, an ounce of prevention is probably worth about 20 pounds of cure. Because if you get out there, and you can go really far on an e-bike as you know, if you get out there 10 miles and you get a flat and you haven't done anything to be able to take care of it or to have prevented it in the first place, you can be in a really bad situation. You can be very far from home and with not a lot of options.
I have another video where there are a few things maybe you can do to try and get yourself back home under your own power, but it's going to be hard to do. So, use those preventative techniques. Put some Slime or some Flat Out in your tire, follow the directions on the side of the bottle, and just prevent the flat from happening in the first place. It is possible to do. Okay, I hope that was super helpful. There are a lot of ideas in there that you can use. You can look them all up, and find the right one for you. Thanks.
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