My experience repairing a puncture on my Royal Enfield's tube-type tyre

I think for me, the easiest part was to remove the wheel of the motorcycle.

BHPian masterChief007 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

DIY Puncture repair

So finally the day had come when I had to face the inevitable puncture, while I was going for a badminton session. In childhood, we used to go to a cycle shop and see punctures being fixed in minutes and I too got adept at the steps involved there. But a motorcycle tube is a different beast. Thus I sat on the petrol tank - almost, and rode the bike back home, rims/tubes be damned, I am not going to push this stuff around for 4 km!

So I decided to try my hand at repairing it. Though as an afterthought, the process is itself an easy one but I had too many apprehensions on whether I had all the tools - point to note: buy a multi-tool set with a ratchet setup.

So here it goes:

Removing the wheel :

For me, the easiest part was this. Just go into the right side and remove the stopper pin (a plier to press the wide ends and a thin screw to pull it from the loop), and the castle nut with a 24 mm spanner and WD40 in ample amounts and fix a screwdriver on the left side of the long axle to keep it from spinning.

Tools needed:

• Plier and a thin screwdriver to pull the stopper pin
• 24 mm open/ring/socket spanner to remove the castle nut
• Screwdriver to hold the long axle in place when removing the castle nut

As soon as you remove the chain adjuster, spacer, and some sort of washer (I have to figure this one out ) fell out of place. Collected the spacer and the washer and the long axle in my toolbox.

Removing the wheel was not tough and I did it solo. Just jerk around with the wheel and when it falls to the ground tilt the bike still on the main stand and manoeuvre it from the back mudguard. After some pushing and shoving, the rear wheel came out, and I thought the tough part was over.

Fixing the tube

To fix the tube you need all the tools here:

• 2 tire irons, bigger the better, I have 18-inch irons.
• Puncture motorcycle patches, self-vulcanizing tube (Omni puncture kit)
• Tire inflator and water/soap solution.
• Oil pastel to mark the puncture spot
• Sandpaper to roughen the tube surface

Getting the tube out was a pain as I was trying to muscle it through, however that rarely works in any situation. So upon youtubing a gentleman's great advice to push the tyre into the centerline on the opposite end of the tyre made the job much easier. And the tube was out in no time.

Inflated the tyre, dipped it in a bucket of water and found 3 punctures. With oil pastels marked them and applied the vulcanizing solvent and let it dry out. Took out the patches from the kit and fixed them. Currently, the tube is under test. Tried the bubble test and no bubbles are coming out as of now. Tomorrow will fix the wheel and go for a small ride.

Root cause analysis

If there is a puncture, you must find the cause, since I couldn't see any nails or pins instead tears I ran my hand gingerly inside the tyre and checked the rim. From one side the rim spoke cover on top of the rim (like how the tubeless conversion paste is applied) was out of place. So moved that back in line.

Another was inside the tyre some sharp edge was created, managed to sandpaper it down till smooth.

Though the process is trivial in technical difficulty, however, I would prefer not to take the hassle of doing this activity on the roadside at 45 degrees or in the low oxygen environs of the high Himalayas. Always prefer a tubeless setup for ease of use.

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