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Removing rear wheel (road/stirrup brakes and full chaincase)

This might be the wrong crowd yes but does anyone have any tips on removing the rear wheel from a bike which has road & stirrup brakes, a full chaincase, and a Sturmey Archer three speed hub gears?  Need to patch a hole in the tube, and have no experience of doing that without taking the wheel off...

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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35 comments

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brooksby | 1 year ago
5 likes

Quick update: all sorted. Removed the tube and just hung it out, pumped it up to find the hole, marked with chalk, did the thing with a traditional puncture repair kit... Found a thorn in the tyre which I removed.  The only hiccup was that there's so little clearance between the rim and the brake pads on a rod and stirrup system that I had to take one pad off so I could wiggle the last bit of tube back in.

Took me twenty minutes, and that included shuffling the bikes in the shed so I could get this bike out!

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
5 likes

Yeah but will it still be up tomorrow?

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brooksby replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
4 likes

Oh don't say that!  2

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Hoping to read success on this after the w/e.

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brooksby replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
3 likes

We didn't go out for a ride yesterday (too darned hot), but rode it around the back garden for a bit and the tyres are still inflated this morning.

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brooksby | 1 year ago
3 likes

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's posted on here to help with my problem.

I'll let you know after the weekend if the bike is up and running yes

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chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
4 likes

Looking forward to reports about how you've managed to bodge tubeless / carbon fork / 105 / wireless shifting on there.

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes

Does your wife have the login, as I'm not sure you will survive based on your posts in here !!

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IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
2 likes

I've done a few Dutch bikes in my time and it is indeed a nightmare to remove - needs taking off the cover, undoing the gears, unstrapping the hub brake etc. Probably a nice hour off and on.

The theory is that if you can patch - patch. If you can locate the puncture, move it to the bottom, pop off a bit of the tyre, wrestle out the inner tube, patch and pray.

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ktache | 1 year ago
1 like

I have heard of such things as "sausage" tubes, inner tubes that are not circular.

Luckily my rohloff is relatively easy to pop off, external clip box helps. Gone tubeless too, thank goodness. Could all start to get more difficult once I fit a proper mudguard.

Search for "non circular bicycle inner tube" a few pop up.

Easier carry round spare at least.

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HoarseMann | 1 year ago
2 likes

If you're just patching a flat, then defo try and do it without removing the wheel. Working on the non-chain side for better access. Once the tube is out, you do get quite good access to it by sliding it down towards the hub.

It's good to practise this at home in case it happens to you when you're out on a long ride. Far quicker and less risky than getting the wheel out!

Is it a woods valve? These are a pain as you have to take the valve core out to get the stem through the hole in the rim. Plus the rubber sleeve type tend to leak when they start to perish. So if you struggle to find the hole in the tube, it could be the valve that's gone.

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chrisonabike replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
1 like

Yep - that's deffo the standard way:

https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/dutch-style-puncture-repair/

... or rather it is for those who don't just push their bike to the nearest bike shop / station with cycle repair facilities - shouldn't be far:

https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2017/11/28/a-ride-from-schijndel-to-s...

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brooksby replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
2 likes

HoarseMann wrote:

Is it a woods valve?

Nope - 'standard' schraeder valve.  The bike is a 1980s Raleigh Superbe that my wife rescued from a skip.  Sturmey Archer three speed hub gears which still work like magic.  Someone was going to just send it to landfill! 

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HoarseMann replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Those bikes were built to last forever, nice save!

I did a similar thing with an old Triumph Palm Beach that had been tossed in a skip. I refurbished it and used it for several years for knocking about town on. Only really stopped using it because the brakes were so bad and getting tyres and rims for 27 1/4 wheels is not easy!

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brooksby replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
1 like

The wheels on this one are 26 and 3/8 inches, it appears (I'm guessing that'll be fun trying to source new tyres eventually...)

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ChasP replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Tyres are not uncommon, still used by dutch style bikes look for 650a or the etrto number 37-590, even sold by Decathlon.

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brooksby replied to ChasP | 1 year ago
0 likes

ChasP wrote:

Tyres are not uncommon, still used by dutch style bikes look for 650a or the etrto number 37-590, even sold by Decathlon.

Oh, is that 650A?  Didn't realise: thank you.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

Maybe see if you can contact the person on this channel for tips.

 

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brooksby replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
0 likes

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

Maybe see if you can contact the person on this channel for tips.

Thanks - I've already watched a few of their videos.

They have a thirty minute video on 'the history of the Raleigh Superbe' over a twenty odd year period: incredibly detailed.

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chrisonabike | 1 year ago
0 likes

Apologies if you've been there already but I thought the canonical way (for minor repairs) was not to bother, but just get the tube out of the tyre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8zIxcHOPD4

(I do note it looks suspiciously easy in that video though...)

I guess it's "more expense" but I'd like to see more of something like the Workcycles "escape hatch".  Still a "major mechanical" compared to a quick release but easier than the full fandango to remove the wheel completely.

https://vimeo.com/241003190

(Note that you have to download the video to watch it).

Of course it's a bit of a computerised steam hammer to undo several nuts but the single-side axle would circumvent all these issues...

https://www.cyclinguk.org/sites/default/files/document/migrated/publicat...

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Sriracha replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
4 likes
chrisonatrike wrote:

I thought the canonical way (for minor repairs) was not to bother, but just get the tube out of the tyre

Some sleight of hand in that video ... at about 1:30 the tyre is magicked itself off the wheel for inspection!

If possible I prefer to locate the source of the puncture in the tyre first, then only expose the affected part of the inner tube, and dispense with the water bath which I never can seem to find in my saddle bag.

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chrisonabike replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
3 likes

You mean you don't use those special moebius tyres...? (I am not a topologist...)

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brooksby replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
2 likes

Does that mean your saddle bag would have to be a Klein bag?

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chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes

No, but it's still a speedy bike, it goes at quite a Cantor and leaves others for dust.  Although I can never seem to straighten out all the bends in the handlebars.

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brooksby replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
2 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

Apologies if you've been there already but I thought the canonical way (for minor repairs) was not to bother, but just get the tube out of the tyre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8zIxcHOPD4

I'd thought that trying to patch the tube without removing it would be too much faff, but having taken the front wheel off to repair that tube...  <shakes head> I have never experienced anything like that horror...  Anything must be better than trying to take the back wheel off.

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chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
3 likes

Running tank-heavy energy-sapping slippy-at-an-angle Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres suddenly makes sense when you've got that facing you.  I've used them a fair bit and they're actually fine (except for wet cornering quibbles) for this kind of application.

Having said that unless you're a rock climber you'll want to get training on those finger-gyms for the one time every couple of years when you do pick up a puncture.  And carry the heaviest tyre levers you can find.  (The "squeeze the tyre into the central groove and work it round" trick is all well and good but sod's law says you'll be doing this in sleet with frozen fingers.  And in the dark - everyone knows that tyres are negatively photosensitive).

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brooksby replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
1 like

I have marathon plus on my main bikes for the bulletproof protection that they offer but the tyres on this bike (which my wife rides) looked almost brand new (and it's an obscure wheel size).

i usually have to have a stiff drink before I approach having to remove marathons, but removing the tyres on this one felt like pulling off a sock! The tyre was so bendy... Which I imagine is why it gave little resistance to the thorn that punctured it.

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Hirsute | 1 year ago
1 like

Sounds like a chapter from richard's bicycle book. Might be worth checking the library for an older copy.

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brooksby replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
0 likes

Thanks, hirsute.  I don't have the Bicycle Book, only his (much later) City Cycling.

(and believe me that getting just the front wheel off, which involves disassembling the brakes, took two hours, a pentacle, and the sacrifice of an unwilling goat...).

(my wife hit some hedge cuttings and got a double flat).

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

Found a copy of the new bike book (maybe too new !)

Think you will have to remove this chaincase somehow though.

 

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