Bike maintenance is an important element in cycling. Learn how to remove the back wheel of a bike from a pro in this video.
Manually shift to bottom gear
open quick release system
Loosen fork
Open brake
Kevin Livingston is a former professional cyclist who successfully rode and completed six Tour de France races as a teammate of Lance Armstrong. Kevin now focuses on Training and Coaching through his company, Pedal Hard Training Services in Austin,TX.
KEVIN LIVINGSTON: Hi. I'm Kevin Livingston. I'm going to show you how to remove and put back on your rear wheel. Most bikes these days are going to use the quick release system, that is, there are no bolts that you need a wrench for. It can all be done by hand. This is the quick release--through the hub of the wheel. Now it's closed, the wheel is engaged, you're ready to go. To remove the wheel, first let's talk about the gear. Either you can remember the gear you're in but easiest is to drop down into the smallest cog in the back. You simply do this by manually shifting all the way down until the derailleur stopped advancing. Spin the pedals here, we get in here. I'm going to use my brake to stop the wheel. This will help me when I'm putting it back on to get the proper alignment. So skewer is closed, I'm going to open the quick release. And again, I'm going to have to loosen--there's two ways, I could loosen from this side, again lefty-loosey-righty-tighty, I'm going to loosen left, or I can just simply spin this way with my finger to loosen it while holding this side of the skewer. I'm going to open my brake. I'm going to lift the bike--now you see the wheel already dropped out of the drop-outs. So I'm going to gently tap the wheel down. I could even lift the derailleur back to allow it to drop. Now, I have to clear the chain out, so I'm just going to remove it like this. And that's how you remove a wheel with the quick release. Now to re-engage, sometimes a little more difficult. First, I have to seed the chain on my cogs. Remember that we shifted down so we know where we need to get that chain engaged. I feed it--I feed the chain over and I'm going to drop it right on that cog. Oops, I missed it and I got to get again, there you go, now I'm engaged. And the wheel is going to line up properly because we know the right gear and the position of the derailleur. You drop it back in, now I'm going to retighten it. Again you could use the method of spinning with your finger here but as I get tighter it's better that I keep the skewer level like this and turn right on this side. Once it's snug by hand then I know I've got enough tension to close the quick release. I like to close the quick release between the seat stay here and the chain stay because again it's safe if I were to close it this way--I could close it this way--but if a rider would have come behind me and engage his wheel he
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