[DIY] – changing a foldable bike tire

At the risk of turning this into a ‘whatever I feel like posting this week’ blog, I hope you’ll indulge me into journaling the wonderful adventure of being a manly man and changing the tire of my foldable bike.

I bought a BTWIN Fold 100 bike for dirt cheap in March 2024. It was, at the time, a whopping €230,34 / $250,43 at the time, and that’s including the €9 kickstand I bought separately. It was a very good investment, as I live in an apartment and like to travel by train a lot, on account of now owning a car (or a driver’s license). I can easily use my bike to ride around the city, fold it and take it by train to another place, ride there some more, you get the point. It’s small and lots of fun.

Yes, I know my carpet is dirty, I won’t vacuum it before I finish the work on the bike 😅

I did change the saddle to a more comfy, gel one, and at one point I added a phone holder and a lock chain (an actual motorbike one, which is pretty ridiculous considering the price and weight of the bike, but still, overqualified is better than underqualified). I also bought a hand pump, some hex keys, and some chain oil.

The two drawbacks of this bike are the lack of gears and the lack of proper suspension. This means that it can only go as fast as I pedal, and each pebble is felt from my gluteus maximus to my teeth. Fun. Living in a big metropolis with not a lot of care put into bike lanes means that I have to mount the curb pretty often, which is not only inconvenient for me and the pedestrians, but it also does a lot of wear to the wheels, particularly the front wheel. It would deflate every couple of rides, so each day I took the bike out I had to work on my arm muscles first and pump some air into the tires.

Well, last year, the poor front wheel finally said ‘enough is enough’ and gave up 2 minutes into a nice afternoon ride, when I noticed that I was biking with a flat tire. Needless to say, I returned home, as deflated as the front wheel, but at least I wasn’t… tired. (Please don’t hit me, I wear glasses).

That’s where we are today, February 27th. I ordered a 15mm Tolsen Wrench, a 20 inch tube and a 20 inch tire, plus some tire levels, and when everything arrives, I’ll embark on the journey to macho as I do what most men ususally do for their wives, only I do it for my €230 foldable bike.

February 28th

Wrench arrived

Might as well do half the work and start taking off the front wheel.

Well, I took the front wheel off, cleaned up the bike, oiled the chain and put air into the back tire. Now I have to wait for the spare parts to arrive so I can finish the job, unless I’m content with riding a unicycle from now on. I haven’t taken pictures of using the wrench, but it’s pretty straightforward, and I’ll make sure to photograph screwing the nut and washer pair on both sides when I reinstall the wheel, which is basically the process in reverse.

March 3rd

Got the rest of the stuff!

I’ll start work on the wheel tomorrow, tonight I’m too… err, exhausted.

March 4th

I started by removing the inner tube and tire from the rim using the tire levers.

Content warning: Crocs. Viewer discretion is advised

Ok, so the trick is to leave one or two in place and then work your way around the rim, pulling the tire out piece by piece. Well, in one piece, but you get it. And the groves on the levers are meant to keep them in place by hooking on the spokes.

Now time to fit the new tube and the new tire.

Apparently, the proper way to do it is to put the tire on the rim halfway, then slightly inflate and add the tube, and finally fully install the tire, thus presenting a scenario where the tube might get pinched.