Emergency repair kit – now why didn't I think of that (asked the man who pushed his flat-tired bike a couple of miles a few weeks back)? One thing I really miss about Japan is that a bike repair shop was never very far away. In LA, not so much.

I've gotten pretty good at dealing with flats. After taking it to the shop a few times (once walking a few km to do so), and then bringing a pump with me when I knew I had a slowish leak, and then being faced with flats on the kids bikes I knuckled down and learned figured things out.

I've replaced two tubes and patched a couple others the last while. The kids are pretty good with the wrench getting their wheels off too. The silly little tools for getting the tire off the rim are prone to break the first few times as you're getting the hang of it. I bought 3 but should have bought 5 I think.

Oh, and there are a bunch of books on bike maintenance at our local library too ;-)

The wheels are hard for me to remove on the road (maybe I should start packing a wrench, too!). W- usually takes the wheels off for me, and then I check the inner tube for leaks. I patched my previous front tube twice, I think, and then W- replaced the tube when the valve broke. When this rear wheel went majorly flat, we decided to replace both the tire and the tube because the tire was looking a little ragged too. =)

I've never had a problem with the tire levers, but that could be because I don't exert enough force to break them off. I just try to wiggle two in close to each other, and then the rest of the wheel usually zips off after a little back-and-forth.

http://www.youtube.com/watc.... Hi hope it will help you!!