I love to teach my son how to ride and repair stuffs the old fashion way. Here I will share some of our cheap DIY projects and repairs. I will also share some of my experience as a biker and as a pro mechanic. I am not a mechanic anymore but I still do repairs but mostly for my own machineries and this is why I try to keep everything easy and cheap. I also don't race anymore but I still love riding up the mountains where there is little or no help and all I can rely on is my small tool pouch and my monkey repair skills to bring me home whenever my bike or my friends bike breaks down.

If you are a tech-wiz or some kind of high-tech repair guru who likes spending too much $$$s buying stuffs and spends most of your time at a coffee shop posing your best biker battle gear clown costume and talking how great a biker you are then THIS IS NOT FOR YOU... Here we seriously ride our bikes and we try to keep everything simple, easy and cheap. Most of what I will share here are intended for riders who usually break their bikes to peices and may not be needed by other bikers.

I will also be sharing some cheap ways how I repaired my cars and computers. And for laughs, I will also add some weird / funny / odd stuffs that I or we did that worked and didn't work. Sorry about this blog's style, set-up or whatever you may call it, I'm an old school biker and its easier for me wrenching cars and bikes than typing on my keyboard...

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Tubless Tire Air Leak

Have you ever experienced getting a flat tire (tubeless) and couldn't find anything wrong with it. No cracks, no nails, rim looks good, have dipped the whole tire in water but can't see no air leaks but is gets flat over night or after a few days. 

Based on my experiences with using old 2nd hand crappy tires (cars and bikes) that the tires are often OK but the air valve's body crack due to age (rubber) causing air to leak. Sometimes the crack is very small that we couldn't see it even when we dip the tire in water. The easiest way to know if you have a failing air valve body is to spray some liquid around the base of the air valve's body, twist it around and look for air bubbles. Just be ready with your spare/emergency tire (for cars) because twisting the air valve's body might fully break-up the crack and you might be pushing your car or bike home if you don't have a spare or if you are kilometers away from a repair shop.

I always keep new spare air valves (around 25 pieces/ pack) and I do use them all, lol! Just recently I have used 2 on my truck, 2 for a big bike, 2 for my wife's car and 2 for this scooter. This is why I keep spares :)

How to change the air valve is not for beginners. You have to know how to remove the tire from the rim to get to the air valve. You'll need levers, bead breaker, air compressor, etc. and working with tires can be dangerous for newbies so I strongly suggest that if you are a newbie and have detected that you have a leaking tire air valve is to get proper help from a pro. If you can do the replacement/repairs yourself, I suggest that you keep a few spares in your tool box.
Posted by iWrench at 4:04 PM

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJuly 12, 2013 at 11:30 AM

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