You’re riding with a big group and suddenly you feel the road beneath your back wheel. You look down and dang. A flat. “Mechanical!” you call ahead. The cyclists around you pull over to kindly STARE AT YOU silently fight performance anxiety while you fumble with your flat.

Don’t sweat it. We’ve all been there, including all the folks on the group ride. But still, it would be nice to fix flats with ease, wouldn’t it? Here are a few tips for fixing flats faster.

#1 Shift to the biggest cog

Are you fixing a flat on your rear wheel? Shift to the biggest cog on your cassette (the gear that’s easiest to peddle). If you have two or three chain rings in the front, shift to the smallest one (this way your chain isn’t crossed.

• Shifting first opens up your derailleur so it’s easier to remove your wheel

• It also helps you remember where to place the chain when you put the wheel back on

#2 Flip the bike over

You won’t have a bike stand on the side of the road, but you can flip your bike over. You’ve probably seen folks do this before: balance the bike on its handle bars and seat.

• Flipping the bike over allows you to work with both hands

• And removes the need to balance the bike on anything

#3 Open the brakes

If you have rim brakes (as opposed to disc brakes), you’ll want to open them up before you remove your tire. How to do this depends on your brake type. If you have cantilever brakes, there will be a little tab you can push over. For V brakes, you’ll release a brake cable from a clip.

• Opening the brakes gives the tire clearance so you can remove the wheel

#4 Push the derailleur

If you’re fixing a flat in the rear, you’ll have the challenge of removing the cassette from the grip of the chain. You can lengthen the chain and give yourself slack by pushing the joint of the derailleur toward the chain rings.

• Gently pushing the derailleur toward the chain ring creates slack in the chain so you can more easily remove the tire

#5 Pinch all around

If you still have some air in the tire, let it out! Then move all around your tire and pinch, pinch, pinch it away from the rim. This will REALLY help you pry the tire off later.

• Pinching the tire off the rim loosens the bead and helps you pry it off later

#6 Two tire levers, then one

If your bike has wide tires (32mm or more), you can probably pry one off pretty easily with just one tire lever. If you have tiny, stiff road tires, two levers might help. Slip both of them under the tire bead, just a few inches from each other, and then pry both at once. Clip one lever to a spoke, and then pull the other lever all around the rim to pry the rest of the tire out. If it’s too hard at first, try at least lifting the tire away from the rim in a few spots with the second lever. Do so within a small section near the first lever. Basically, you’re trying to loosen up your starting point a bit.

• Clipping a tire lever to a spoke prevents the tire from just slipping back into the rim

#7 Just remove one side

If you have a really perplexing flat, you might take off the whole tire so you can give it a good visual inspection. If the source of the flat is pretty obvious, though, you can get away with just having one side of the tire pried off, leaving the other side in the well of your wheel rim. You’ll still want to inspect the outside of your tire visually, plus feel the inside of the tire for any possible culprits. Once you’re done, you can pull the inner tube out from the open side of the tire.

• If the source of the flat is easily identified, save time by leaving the tire on the rim

#8 Don’t inflate the new tube until you’re done

Nothing wastes time like a pinch flat! A pinch flat happens when you accidentally get some of the tube stuck under the bead of your tire, and it ruptures when you inflate it. Sometimes you’ll see people inflate the new tube slightly before then stick it on their rim. The advantage of doing this is the tube won’t twist under the tire. The disadvantage is the added surface area makes pinch flats more likely. An faster, easier way is to leave the new tube deflated, and then pinch, pinch, pinch the tire back into the rim as you tuck the tube within. You can feel and see that the tube is safely within the walls of your tire when you do this.

• Avoid pinch flats by tucking the deflated tube safely within the walls of your tire as you pinch it back into the rim

#9 Two levers at the end

Now for the much dreaded step of coaxing your stiff tire back into the rim with tire levers. Getting the tire back in is easy enough until the very last section when the tire is tight. One method you can try is inserting both tire levers in the last part, just three or four inches apart, and simultaneously pushing them to pop that tire back in. It will probably take a few tries. Each attempt will loosen the tire up for you a tiny bit.

• Using two levers to pop your tire back in at the end might be easier for you than one

#10 Check your flat kit

Not having everything you need in your flat kit can definitely slow down your fix!

Don’t waste time patching a tube on the side of the road. Instead, stick an inner tube in your flat kit, and patch the punctured one when you get back home.

CO2 cartridges aren’t very eco-friendly, but they are much faster than using a hand-pump. That is, unless your inflator is dumb. Fancy looking inflators aren’t necessarily better. Don’t ask a bike mechanic for their recommendation; they’ll sell you whatever is available in the shop. Ask friends instead. If you don’t have friends, consider me one. I recommend that green inflator: the Genuine Innovations Microflate Nano inflator, to be specific.

As you’ve probably surmised, two tire levers is better than one.

Finally, keep a patch kit on hand just in case your spare inner tube is actually an old one you forgot to patch! The new sticker style patches are much, much faster than the old school rubber cement style ones.

• Carry a spare tube so you can leave the patching for later

• Use CO2 instead of a hand pump

• Ask your friends which inflators work for them

• Bring two tire levers

#12 Practice at home

Better yet, record your best practice session, post it to You Tube, and send me the link! I’d love to share it here.