How to repair minute bicycle & bike tire punctures, leak using soap solution

In this current lifestyle of more comfort and less physical work, walking is one of the best exercise for health. The benefits of walking for health are quite high. It is also a friendly measure to minimize pollution and save climate. If most of us opt to walk instead of a car for the office it will be great.:-).

If you feel it is too long to walk and wish to save some time, bicycles come handy. They serve the purpose of both exercise (walking) and also stop pollution in the current life style. So it is better to use a bicycle in your daily life activities where possible.

I do use a bicycle and recently had a funny problem with it. It was losing air but we were unable to trace any puncture due to its minute leak. But still the tire lost the whole gas when left idle. So there was technique to fix it up as below.

Your bike or bicycle tire loses air in a period of week or 10days. This happens even faster on exposure to sunlight or during summer? This indicates your tire might have a minute puncture or air leak. This can be a frustrating and time consuming as you will need to inflate your tire frequently.

If taken to a local tire repair mechanic for flat tire repair, he checks the valve stem area and entire tube surface and the most chance are you might find no air leaks or puncture. Because in the classical way to fix puncture, the tube is removed from flat tyre, inflated and checked for any leaks on the surface either visibly or by dipping the entire tube surface in water to notice bubbling. This is very successful way to detect punctures of normal sort with the leaks of pinhole size. for more detailed description check the video below.

But when the leak or puncture is very small or minute, this classical method won’t help us because there appears no prominent air leak on the surface or even bubbling in water. This gives an impression of no puncture but the tyre gets flat gradually over few days creating a doubt of whether to replace the tube.

Solution: To fix it some foamy soap solution in water helps. Pour the foamy soap solution on the entire tube surface and carefully notice all over. You will notice small or sometimes large soap bubbles erupting slowly from the point of tiny puncture. There you are and fix it by patching up without having to replace the tube.