DIY Trailside Tire Removal Jack

Some time ago I was out with my buddy and I got a flat. The area didn’t have any really decent places to prop up the bike and we found ourselves digging and balancing.

It all worked out but I really wish there was another way to do it.

I was thinking back to this the other day and decided to come up with a solution. I didn’t want to buy anything off the shelf and also didn’t want the extra weight of new equipment on my already heavy bike with little free space. I wanted a solution using stuff I’m already bringing with me.

A quick look at my gear and one thing stood out as the obvious choice.

I carry a length of pipe with me to mainly use as leverage for removing/tightening the lug nuts. It also can work as a [crappy] digging tool, hammer (to drive that stubborn rear axl back) and a weapon if need be. I suppose it could help temporarily mend a broken tent pole with some duct tape.

Anyway, that’s my rationale for keeping a somewhat heavy piece of pipe on the bike. 🙂

I couldn’t find anything else so I went looking through all the spare bits of crap I keep in the storage room of my house and found what I needed.

A small section of PVC pipe to add height. A pipe joiner. And a little piece of bent metal I have no clue what it went to.

The PVC is some type of joiner pipe. Inside in the middle there’s a “lip” that stops the metal pipe from going all the way through.

I assembled the pieces and hammered the metal down a bit to create this odd looking thing:

The piece of metal is inserted into the pipe joiner and is held in by the threads.

The piece of metal is surprisingly strong. It alone can hold the weight of the bike. Though it would probably bend if the weight was dropped on it suddenly.

The pipe joiner can can add a small amount of height adjustment as well.

The system is able to be the third point of contact when taking off the rear wheel.

On my bike, it won’t work with the front wheel because of my skid plate. But there’s no reason it shouldn’t work on some other bikes. My next project will be to figure out how to get it to work for the front wheel.

It’s stable enough, though I wouldn’t call it “stable”. I want to find something a bit wider to use for the foot. That piece of PVC was all I had. It works but doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

I’ll post back if I come up with something. Hope you find this useful!

***UPDATE – November 2019***

I’ve been carrying this with me for more than two years now. So far it hasn’t let me down. The only adjustment I made was adding a second piece of bent metal because the original piece wasn’t always holding the weight without bending. So far I’ve used it four or five times successfully. The last time was about two months ago. Here it is in action.