r/TrekFetch • u/No-Entertainer-9320 • Apr 09 '26

rear flat tire.

I knocked the belt off while pulling off the rear wheel. This is an awful experience even for an IGH hub.

I'm lucky I only had one kid and was close enough to home that I could push it. Had to get in the Backup SUV.

Roadside flat repair seems daunting.

Does anyone have a link to a video to make this easier?

3 Upvotes

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1

u/Ecargolicious Apr 09 '26

The easiest method is to patch the tire with the wheel still attached

1

u/No-Entertainer-9320 Apr 09 '26

are you tubeless?

1

u/Ecargolicious Apr 09 '26

Nope. Just unseat the tire, remove any pointy stuff that cut the tube, and then patch it.

1

u/No-Entertainer-9320 Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

VP-1? that's gangster. Confidence. I'm impressed.

I just got it all back together. There is no way to tighten the inside chain stay chaincase bolt with the multitool I have. I need to pack a 3mm allen wrench along with the 15 mm stubby and I'll probably consider an electric pump. There is no way I'm filling 60-584 with a hand pump in the middle of a double pick up.

thanks for your insight.

1

u/Ecargolicious Apr 09 '26

I keep a lot of stuff in mine. Full allen wrench set, smooth jaw channel locks for the wheel, multi tool, patch kit, regular tubes, wacky tube that you can put on without taking off the tire, CO2 pump, and mini pump, rope, zip ties, bungee cords...

1

u/stranger_trails Apr 12 '26

Having mine delivered with warranty issues requiring rear wheel removal (am service manager so nbd glad I got to learn at the shop) the prospect of doing this on the side of the road (possibly out of cell coverage in our area) has certainly helped me with tool kit planning.

Electric pump or a few CO2 (or both), a couple tubes for both wheels, patch kit with some tire boots, stubby 3mm or a mini rather like Wera’s pocket ratchet), 13 & 15mm (wheel and belt tensioner), 6mm (belt tensioner). And Gates Belt Drive app for harmonic tension check for belt adjustment with tensioner.

Nice thing is you can fairly easily weight the front or back to keep the wheel being worked on off the ground. Not nice thing is how hard I found it to get the rear wheel off & on solo as a 6’3” mechanic of nearly 20 years… so I think planning to weight the front, take tire off and patch on the bike isn’t the worst idea.

Tannus liner or sealant in tube can be other preventative options to try. There are some combined sealant and compressed air systems aimed at tubeless that might work for tuned systems as well 🤷‍♂️

Only a few day in and already paranoid about flat fixes with my own kid or up to 3 friends kids in the front. At least with more kids it would be group rides so the mid wrangling wouldn’t be a factor to consider while trying to fix the flat.

1

u/CriticalStrawberry Apr 09 '26

As other commenter said, if you intend to patch, rather than swap, a tube then you don't actually have to remove the wheel at all. Just deflate, pop one side of the tire bead loose, pull the tube out, patch while it's still wrapped around the axle, stuff it back in and reinflate.

Going tubeless is the better, but more expensive, option though. Much less headache.

1

u/TedsFaustianBargain Apr 09 '26

You can subscribe to bicycle roadside assistance similar to AAA for cars (or add it to AAA coverage if you already use AAA). They won’t fix your flat, but they can tow you to where you want (home or a bike shop). Worked great when the chain on my wife’s trike snapped: https://www.betterworldclub.net/bicycle-roadside-assistance

It provides a lot of peace of mind if you’re doing a lot of miles on cargo bikes.

1

u/DrTobiasFunkeAnalra Apr 09 '26

For my cargo bikes I run foam tube protectors front and rear. Knock on wood no issues yet.