HOW TO PATCH YOUR BICYCLE'S CAMERA

Basic material:

·         Tire Removal Levers

·         Camera patches

·         Glue for patches

·         A piece of sandpaper

1. Dismantle

To remove the camera we will use the tire dismantling levers. The first thing to do is push the tire with your thumbs in order to detach it from the walls of the ring.

You have to take off the faces of the rim from the walls of the hoop.

Once it is detached we push and hook the edge of the rim with one of the levers and hold it with one of the spokes. If your levers do not have a hook, you will have to hold it with your hand against a beam. You have to be very careful not to pinch the camera.

Tire removal

We hook the edge of the rim and hook the lever in one of the spokes.

Repeat the procedure with the second lever approximately 10 cm from the first but this time we slide the lever firmly in the opposite direction to the first lever, until all the lateral circumference of the rim is outside the rim.

At this moment we can take the camera and pull it to extract it completely.

Levers for tire removal

We use the second lever to bounce the entire face of the wheel.

2. Locate the puncture

There are perforations that are quite obvious and some others that are almost invisible to the eye. The best known way to locate a puncture is to use a bucket with water, but the reality is that we will not always have one at hand.

In this case we will make use of our sense of touch, hearing and even smell.

The first thing we are going to do is to inflate the camera and place it close to the face in order to listen, feel and even smell the air that escapes from the camera. The air released by the camera has a rubbery smell.

If you have a pen in your hand, you can mark the exact point with a cross, trying to make the strokes longer than the area covered by the patch.

Puncture mark

We locate the puncture in the camera. We can mark the hole.

3. Tire inspection

It is very important to inspect the rim as there is a possibility that the object that pierced the camera is still embedded in the rim. The inspection must be done both on the outside and inside the rim, using sight and touch. My suggestion is that they take a reference point on the rim (it can be the mark on one side of the rim) and that they turn while looking for the object. Once they locate the object they can remove it with care not to hurt themselves. They can use a pincer to facilitate this step.

If you omit this step, the object can become embedded and will perforate the repaired camera again.

Object embedded in rim

We must inspect that the object that poncho the camera does not remain embedded in the rim.

4. Prepare the camera

In order for the glue to adhere better we will sand the camera. The area to be sanded should be a little larger than the area covered by the patch. To facilitate this step we can rely on the pump, on our amphora or even on the bicycle itself.

Many cameras have lines along the joints, in case the patch is going to be applied on one of these joints it is very important that we erase them completely with the sandpaper.

If we do not do this, it is possible that air escapes through that area.

During this process it is important that you no longer touch this area with your fingers, as it can be contaminated with dirt or grease that will impede optimal adhesion.

Locking the camera

You have to sand the area to be patched to achieve a better adhesive adhesion.

5. Application of the patch

To apply the patch, the first thing we will do is apply a little glue to the entire area that we sanded. It is recommended to apply enough glue on the perforation and then distribute it to cover an area larger than that covered by the patch with the end of the glue tube. In this way we do not fill our fingers with glue, nor do we contaminate the area with dirt that we may have on our hands.