Does the task of removing the rear tire of your fixie bike seem overwhelming and challenging to you? Well, you’re not alone.
This is a common issue many bike owners tend to come across, and many of them are just as worried about messing things up as you are. One of the major concerns is that you may end up affecting the chain’s working in some way during the process, which can obviously be quite expensive to fix.
That said, let us tell you that it’s certainly not as difficult as it seems. In fact, if you’re good at DIY stuff (which is probably the reason you have decided to do it yourself, anyway), it may very well turn out to be a breeze for you.
We have put together a foolproof, extremely simple guide to remove the rear tire of your fixie bike. It has been written with absolute beginners in mind, so it’s definitely going to be easy to follow.
Don’t Do it the Hard Way
First things first, let us tell you that we think there’s a hard way and an easy way of removing your fixie bike’s rear tire. When most bikers do not research at all about how to change their fixie’s rear tire the right way, they end up doing it the hard way. That is, of course, if they are successful at all.
While it’s not extremely hard to not mess things up, for an absolute beginner, who hasn’t touched any of their fixie bike’s parts ever before, it can get a little challenging not to.
But doing it the hard way may certainly leave you all greasy and messy. You’re also likely to end up wasting a huge amount of time in the process. This is because it may take you a good few times to learn how to do it efficiently.
But why should you go through all of that? As we said, there’s a perfectly easy way of doing it, and we will be guiding you through exactly that. No figuring out on your own, but simply following things which is exactly how a professional mechanic is going to do it.
So without further ado, let’s jump in.
Step 1
Shift in a way that gets your chain onto the small cog and also the smallest chainring. Basically, this is going to make the process much easier.
If you’re riding, you can do this by slowing and stopping when the chain is at the small cog and the smallest chain ring is in the front. If you’re not, you need to shift the levers, one at a time, while moving the bike and the pedal to shift the chain.
Step 2
Depending on the type of brake your bike has, you may have to loosen or remove your bike’s brakes. If your bike has sidepull brakes, you can do this by moving the lever on the brake upwards, till it reaches the point where you can’t do it any further. For bikes with DzV-brakesdz, you need to pull the little noodle out of the holder.
Step 3
Now, you need to remove the quick release and then the wheel could be easily removed. However, before you can do that, you would have to pull the derailleur, as well as the chain, out of the way so that it doesn’t create any kind of interference when you’re taking the wheel off. This is a little secret to take a lot of challenge out of the process.