A flat tyre is the one mechanical problem you are most likely to meet on a Sardinian road. Every bike we hand over carries everything needed to fix one at the roadside — this page shows you how, for both wheel systems in our fleet.
Our bikes run one of two systems. Some are tubeless: there is no inner tube inside, the tyre seals directly against the rim, and a liquid sealant closes small holes on its own. Others run a conventional inner tube. The kit in your bag is different for each, and so is the repair.
Your BTS representative tells you which system your bike has when the bike is handed over at the fitting. If you want to check for yourself: a tubeless wheel has a small lock ring holding the valve tight against the rim, and the tyre sidewall is usually marked TUBELESS or TLR.
In Italy — and especially in Sardinia during the cycling season — the vegetation along the edge of the road is dry and almost entirely made of thorns. In our experience the majority of flats are picked up in the last two metres before a stop, not on the road itself.
Sealant inside, no inner tube. Your kit holds rubber plugs – the “worms” – an insertion tool, and one spare tube as a fallback.
Repair procedureA conventional tube inside the tyre. Your kit holds a spare tube, patches and tyre levers.
Repair procedureTubeless tyres run at lower pressure than a tyre with a tube — more comfort, more grip, far fewer pinch flats. When you do puncture, the sealant usually deals with it before you even notice. When it doesn’t, you plug the hole from the outside, with the wheel still on the bike.
Two minutes, and it shows the one part that is hard to describe in words: how firmly the plug has to be pushed in.
A tubeless plug is fitted from the outside. There is no reason to remove the wheel or the tyre.
Turn the wheel slowly and look for sealant spraying out, bubbling, or a wet patch on the tread. Listen for the hiss if you can’t see it.
The sealant pools at the lowest point. Small thorn holes seal themselves here, and you may not need the plug at all.
Load a worm into the insertion tool before you remove the object, so the hole is open for as short a time as possible.
Straight into the hole, until roughly half the worm is inside and both tails stick out. It takes more force than you expect — this is the step people get wrong.
Give it a small twist as you withdraw the fork, so the worm stays in the tyre.
Pump back up — see how hard the tyre should feel — then turn the wheel and check the plug is holding. Sealant may weep for a few turns; that is normal.
Cut the ends a few millimetres above the tread — never flush. Riding lets the sealant finish the seal from the inside.
A cut that is too large, or a tear in the sidewall, will not hold a plug. That is what the spare inner tube is for.
Keep it — it belongs to the wheel and we will refit it.
It will be wet and messy. Wipe out what you can before the tube goes in.
An energy bar wrapper or a folded banknote between tyre and tube stops the tube bulging through the hole. It will get you to the next town.
At the roadside, fit the spare tube rather than patching. Patch the punctured one in the evening at the hotel, calmly, and it becomes your spare for the rest of the tour.
If it is the rear wheel, this slackens the chain and makes the wheel far easier to take out and put back.
The rim is narrower in the middle. This one move is what makes the tyre come off easily.
Two levers, a hand’s width apart. One side only — the tyre stays on the rim on the other side.
Run your fingers slowly around the whole inside of the tyre — carefully, the thorn is still sharp. A thorn left in the casing will destroy the new tube within minutes. Check the rim tape as well.
Valve through the hole first, then tuck the tube all the way round inside the tyre.
Use levers only as a last resort, and gently — this is where most new tubes get pinched.
Push the valve up into the tyre and back down to free it.
With a hand pump you will almost certainly stop too early — see how hard the tyre should feel.
Some of our e-bikes have a magnetic sensor mounted on the rear wheel valve. If you replace the rear inner tube, reposition that sensor correctly on the new valve. If it is not in the right position, the e-bike may not work properly.
The bike itself keeps working if the electronics fail — a flat remote battery, a displaced sensor or a failed display does not stop you riding.
The hand pump in your bag has no gauge, so at the roadside you are judging by feel. That is fine — you only need to get close enough to ride safely to the next town. Two things matter more than hitting an exact number: with an inner tube, too soft is what causes the next puncture, and with tubeless, never let the tyre go completely flat, because a hand pump cannot push the bead back onto the rim once it unseats.
For a rider of roughly 70–90 kg with luggage. These are starting points, not rules — and the minimum and maximum printed on the tyre sidewall always take priority over any table.
| Bike | Tyre | Tubeless | With inner tube |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road | 25–28 mm | 4.5–6.0 bar 65–85 psi | 5.0–6.5 bar 72–95 psi |
| Touring / hybrid | 32–38 mm | 3.0–4.0 bar 44–58 psi | 3.5–4.5 bar 50–65 psi |
| Gravel & e-gravel | 38–45 mm | 2.0–2.8 bar 30–40 psi | 2.5–3.2 bar 36–46 psi |
A roadside pressure set by feel is a way of getting home, not a setting to keep. At the hotel, or at any bike shop along the route, ask for a floor pump with a gauge and reset it properly — or tell us at the next stop and we will do it.
Every town on our routes has someone who can help. These are the words that get you there.
| Puncture / flat | foratura |
| Inner tube | camera d’aria |
| Tyre | copertone |
| Wheel | ruota |
| Valve | valvola |
| Tyre levers | levagomme |
| Pump | pompa |
| Repair kit | kit riparazione |
| Bike shop | negozio di biciclette |
If the repair will not hold, or you would rather not do it alone, call our hot-line in Sardinia. The numbers are on the emergency contacts page of your tour handbook — worth saving to your phone on the first evening, before you need them.
If the weather turns while you are out, the best thing to do is wait it out, or keep riding if it doesn’t bother you. Taxis are hard to find, expensive, and often unwilling to carry a bicycle. Waiting out the weather is almost always the better choice.
