It’s obviously a day for questions.

I just spotted a screw-head buried in my back tyre. It looks fairly worn and is flush with the surface, so my guess is it has been there a while. The tyre itself is rock solid, so I don’t think there’s a leak yet. “Yet” being the scary word.

I won’t beat about the bush – I am ashamed to admit to being about as mechanically minded as a coconut macaroon, and have no idea how to go about sorting this. Ordinarily I would go to my local spanners and get him to sort it, but he’s on holiday for 2 weeks from today. Besides, I need to start doing these things myself.

What’s the best plan of attack? I should mention that I don’t have a garage to work in and no repair kit for punctures etc.

I'd take the wheel off and take it to a local bike&tyre shop PRONTO!

It'll seem rock solid for now but all it's take is taking a corner or harsh brakeing which will deform the tyre a bit and the screw could work loose and could lead to one hell of a nasty accident.

Take the bike round your local tyre guy mate, he'll sort you out

Yep agree with that. Thats the first time I had to take a rear wheel off also. Got the Haynes manual and me tools and got to it. Took the wheel to local tyre blokey. New tube and patch £9. Good feeling to have taken the wheel off and put it back on again myself. Good opportunity to get at the swing arm properly and give it a good clean and lube. Very satisfying it was to.

What are you on about... the last coconut macaroon i met fully serviced my bike and rebalanced my injectors? God i miss him

Anyways, depending on where you go and who you ask, some will say get a new tire, others will say repair it.. same goes for bike shops, some won't even repair it in case it goes bad... i'm on the fence tho because i have the same problem

Gently ride the bike to a tyre repair centre and get them to put a plug in it. That way they take the wheel out and save all your problems if you are not mechanical.

Main thing is get it done. If it goes while you are on a left hander and you get flung into oncoming traffic you may not get a second chance. Never take risks with tyre problems.

your local tyre fitters are the guys to see.
either ride the bike in, or take the rear wheel off yourself. if you really are a macaroon when it comes to this stuff ride it in & watch them take it apart-that way its done right you gain some experience.
i wouldnt put off for long tho...the fazers not exactly a pushbike & i wouldnt like to think what might happen if it lets go in a hurry....

Thanks for all the advice folks. I was trapped at work with no tools whatsoever, so ended up VERY carefully riding it to the nearest tyre place. This was almost torture.

Unfortunately, there were two previous repairs in the tyre, so it was a brand new Bridgestone for me. Kind of a "Booooo! Expense I didn't need!" and "Yay! New tyre!" moment.

On a related note - how long would you recommend taking it easy on the new tyre.

Well... the only reason why they say take it easy on a new rear tire is because of all that nasty film over it

Last time i grabbed a new tire a few months back, i took it straight out to the spine road -> Collector road -> NEC side roads which as MikeST found out a few weeks back, is full to the brim with quiet medium islands and long flowing twisties... took me two hours of riding to get all that pesky film off

Basically, if you know a road with loads of islands or corners, ride up and down it and gradually increase your angle of lean over time... i'm not talking tipping the bike over as soon as its out of the shop, i'm talking gradually over a couple of hours wear off all that film.... better than getting sandpaper to it anyday!

Don't know about anyone else, but thats what i always do... means i at least know i have some level of grip on my tires instead of doing the normal 100miles carefully (which i've never got because if your being careful then you never tip the bike over and get rid of that film??)

Hope this helps

Yep, new tyre's have a wax coating on them thats left over from the manufacturing process, and that has to be "scrubbed off"...you can either do it G2M's way..or just take it easy for the 1st 100 miles or so, and im surprised that the tyre guy didnt give you this info when he put the new one on.

He did. He said "take it easy for a bit,"

But I was daft enough not to wonder how long "a bit" was until I was nearly home, so I asked the good folks on here.

oh...sorry mate, its just that everytime ive had a new tyre...then i've always been given the full info on what to do to scrub it in..im just taking it for granted that it was standard safety info that they had to give you

No worries, mate. I'm still finding my feet a bit in this whole biking thing. It's one of the reasons I like this forum - you don't get laughed at for asking daft questions. Well, not much

thats true mate....then again, you could go check out the "what type of oil is fork oil" thread

I got a trye all i need is a bike to go with it

You looking for a unicycle frame then Womble??