How to change a rear wheel fast

Punc­tur­ing mid-race is a very, very frus­trat­ing experience.

You spend count­less hours in the saddle, train­ing your butt off for that big race, only to be left stand­ing on the road with fresh legs and a flat tyre.

The good news is — it doesn’t have to be game over when you punc­ture. A few cool, calm decisions can find you mak­ing your way back to the Pel­eton in no time.

In the fol­low­ing, I focus on the rear wheel. People often get stuck on the rear wheel and have trouble either remov­ing it, or repla­cing it without want­ing to smash something.

Lets look at a scenario.

You’re sit­ting pretty in the bunch — 40km into a 120km race. Sud­denly a famil­iar sound breaks the ten­sion in the bunch — Psssftsssftt­sssssft!!!

It’s the dread­ful sound of a punc­ture. Every­one in the bunch is check­ing their tyres hop­ing it’s not them. Fifty metres down the road,  you  start to lose trac­tion in the rear — it’s your rear wheel.

Two things can hap­pen right now.

1. Psy­cho comes to town! — You pull over, flop­ping around like an untrained seal — swear­ing, blam­ing the world for your mis­for­tune. (I’ve done this!)

Or

2. Act like a pro — You under­take the fol­low­ing — in order.

• verb­al­ise to other riders that you’re in trouble and stop­ping — punc­tures are bet­ter than road rash.
• put your hand in the air to let the spares vehicle know your predicament
• IMPORTANT! — as you come to a stop — change down to your smal­lest rear sprocket — (usu­ally the one with 11 or 12 teeth)
• get off your bike calmly and release the rear brake cal­iper to it’s widest set­ting so the wheel will fall out
• care­fully take the rear wheel out and hold it in the air — let­ting the spares vehicle know where you are
• Hold your bike in a pos­i­tion where the spares per­son can place the new wheel in your bike
• close the brake cal­iper once the wheel is in place
• VERY IMPORTANT!!! — stead­ily build back up to speed, time trial your­self back on to the bunch — but not so hard you blow 2 minutes down the road. Don’t panic!
• Finally, there may be other riders in your pre­dic­a­ment. Look around — with more people chas­ing, it increases your chances of catch­ing the bunch.

This isn’t rocket sci­ence, but chan­ging a rear wheel mid race will cause you much stress — espe­cially if the bunch is rid­ing away. I’ve seen top pro­fes­sional cyc­lists mess this up, cost­ing them valu­able time and leav­ing a long solo ride to the finish.

This short video,  will give you a brief example — without all the excite­ment of the race.