A flat tyre out in the mulga is sure to wipe the smile off any rider’s face, but adventure riders have a special set of challenges. Breaking the bead is one of them.
There’s a lot of pressure on an adventure rider over a tyre repair or change. For starters the bikes are usually heavy and the terrain unsuited to suspending a bike with a wheel off the ground. Once that’s accomplished, the big horsepower nature of modern adventure bikes usually means the tyres are held fairly firmly to the rim, especially the rear rim.