Why You Should Learn To Take Off Your Wheels

One of the first things I taught myself after deciding to go on longish trips with my car out of town, was how to replace a wheel. Those were the pre-tubeless days. A flat meant an immediate halt and replacement of the wheel. How to change the wheel is a critical thing to know if you are travelling on your own. This knowledge has come in pretty handy for me on several occasions. It's my good luck that I have never had a flat while travelling long distances in India. But I know if needed I can do it. 

While changing the wheel of a car is relatively easy, changing the wheel of a bike is not. Different bikes use different techniques to fix the wheels. Taking them off was never easy when we were young. You needed wrenches. You needed to take this off and that off etc etc. But it wasn't so critically important for us because a. we were not travelling long distance on our cycles. b. the road side mechanic could get the flat fixed without taking the wheel off. 

However, modern bikes come with a very simple quick release system that makes the job of replacing the wheel like a piece of cake. My Merida has such a system and today, well after owning the bike for more than a year, I mustered up enough courage to take the two wheels off. 

While taking off and putting the front wheel back on was really a piece of cake, the rear wheel wasn't so easy, particularly putting it back on. Finally it happened. But I couldn't quite understand how exactly it happened. I guess I will have to do it several times more to be able to do it confidently. There is no rocket science involved here. 

Now comes the questions why I want to learn this. 

A. It is a cool thing to do/know. If someone did this in my childhood in front of me, I would have been very envious of him and would have wanted to do it and would have made my father's life miserable asking him to get me a cycle with quick release mechanism. 

B. It makes cleaning the bike very easy and you can do a thorough job of it if you can take the wheels off. Not only can you clean the wheels nicely, you can also clean the insides of the fork, brakes, chain stays, seat stays, derailleurs, cassettes etc. These places gather a lot of dirt and it is a good thing to give the bike a thorough shampoo after a dirty run. 

In fact today's decision to take off the wheel was prompted by this morning's ride over a wet patch of road near Science City. The bike's frame was literally plastered with dirt - essentially sand particles. Terrible to look at and would have surely spoilt the bike's paint if I allowed them to sit there for long. 

I had to see the various youtube videos several times to gather the confidence but in the end I did it. Youtube videos make everything look very simple. Real life is not always so simple, but except for putting the rear wheel back on, there is nothing that requires any special ability or knowledge or experience. Any ten year old can also do these. 

C. You can confidently go anywhere with your bike, a spare tube, a couple of levers to take out your tyre and a handy pump. That's it. You can easily fix a flat. I have all these except the pump. It's on my Amazon wish list though. 

Essentially you are not fixing the flat (even that can be done) but on the road you are replacing your tube really. You do that on the desolate section of your road and then the moment you see a tyre repair shop (they are everywhere), get the punctured tube fixed. To fix a punctured tube you need the additional help of some water and of course the patches. 

D. No knowledge goes unused in life. However, trivial it might be.

My next target is to learn how to take the tube out and put it back on.