should I replace my kids' bikes' tyres

krissy08

I brought out my kids 16 inch bike today but the tyres are puctured. Is it worth replacing just the tyres and if yes, where could I possibly go?

Enterprise_1701C

I am not a pro, but to me it sounds like the bike has been stored in less than ideal conditions - rubber decays if badly stored. You can get tyres from most bike shops, Halfords do them, even Wilkinson's do them (though I don't know about 16 inch ones). It could be that just the inner tubes need replacing, but if it is going to get heavy use it could be safest to replace the tyres too.

If the question is where can you get the tyres replaced (rather than where can you buy replacement tyres), ring around your local bike stores and get quotes. It could be that it would be cheaper to replace the bike with cheap one till it is outgrown!

One other thought, if you are worried about doing this yourself, if you just replace the inner tubes the front one is easy enough, but the back one could be a struggle. You can actually buy inner tubes that are in the form of a strip instead of a circle (or you could a few years ago!), you put it within the tyre and pump up as normal, it just means that you don't have to remove the rear wheel as you would for a normal inner tube. My son's bike ran on one of these for quite a little while without problems.

Good luck.

globalds

Looks like you have made a post for the front wheel and the back wheel
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=10625065#post10625065

diamond_dave

All you need to do is to pop to Tesco and buy a puncture repair kit -99p! Dont bother with tyre levers - just use spoon handles or forks. Lever(or spoon) off 1 side of tyre all way round then gently ease out innertube. Once out inflate and put in a bowl of water to see where the leak is. Dry the area carefully then proceed to repair the leak. Easy. I will bet that if you simply inflate the tyres there will be no leaks anyway because the air escapes naturally over aperiod of time.