Changing the Tube of a Tire in a Kids Bike

There are many blogs on how to change the tube of a tire in a kids bike. You could see few reference videos, I have listed in the reference section. On top of that, I would like to share my experience along with the roadblock, which is very important to know in advance. All in all, it is an easy job to do.

At the first glance, the very thought, while looking at the flat tire, to change the tire myself made me little uncomfortable and unconfident. When I watched few how-to videos, I got little ease in confidence. The first thing I did was to create a list of items I would need. My son's bike is about 2-3 years old, so making sure not to buy too expensive parts.

Start of the Project

It was quite intuitive to open the screws fitted in back-tire and start unfolding the bike. In past it had happened that I opened few things but was unable to assemble it back, so I always keep tag on what goes where. This one was not that difficult, though.

Tasks where I had to really struggle

When I started putting the new tube back in the tire, I literally failed in the first attempt and broke the tube. In video, it was quite easy to put the new tube back in the tire, but I was not able to do that. I called off the day and started thinking about it. Did I miss any tool to use? Am I doing it right way? Is it really that tough, what in video looks so simple? I was determined to find it. There was no chance that I would have taken this bike to a bike shop for repair because this bike is less than $40-$50 bucks in value. I started observing the bike tire whenever I got time. After two days, while I was casually observing what went wrong, I found that I was trying to insert the tube in the tire from the wrong side. Once I realized the mistake I did, on the second try, it hardly took 2 minutes to insert the tube in the tire, which took me more than 30 min of try before I broke the tube, the previous day. Anyway, learned something new.

Other than this challenge, unscrewing back-tire and screwing it back again is not that of difficult part. Just be ready that your hand will get messed up with black grease from the axle of tire. So, now that I know the process, it would hardly take me 45-60 min to change the tube.

List of Tools

1. Tube [$5] (Mandatory, if you don't want to fix the old one.) Check the tire size mentioned on the tire to get the right size tube. You could also get puncture resistance tube.
2. Tire Lever [$5] (Mandatory)
3. Crescent/Adjustable Wrench [$15] (Mandatory)
4. Wrench (auto rotating) [$10] (Mandatory)
5. Flat Head screw driver [$5] (Mandatory)
6. Hammer [$12] (Mandatory)
7. Tire (Optional) - If you want to change, but not recommended
8. Lubrication (Optional) - After you are done the fix
9. Pair of Plier (Optional)

References