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If you experience flats, especially when they happen repeatedly, you should always look for the cause. Check the inner tube. When you find the hole check that position on the rim as well as the tire. Make sure that there aren't any sharp edges or objects. Don't go too low on pressure. Buy quality tubes and tires from manufacturers like Continental or Schwalbe.

Flats happen and are inevitable, but they should be a rare occurence. As a daily bike commuter and road bike enthusiast I experienced 2 flats in the last 10 years.

Futhermore most maintenance tasks are quite easy to handle and Youtube has excellent tutorials ready. I understand that this isn't for everyone (I'm not interested in learning how to repair my car for instance), but channels like GCN [1] explain a range of basic maintenance taks for anyone who's interested.

I also think your expectations towards bike prices are somewhat unreasonable. Maintenance is required at any price category, but generally 1000 € bikes will give you a decent entry level experience with quality parts that should last for years. Lower priced options will have to cut corners and cause frustations at some point.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/user/globalcyclingnetwork

> Give me a bike that doesn't break all the time

What you need is a 'commuter bike' with an aluminium frame, Shimano Nexus 8-speed hub gear and Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres. Should cost less than $500.

You'll need to pump up the tyres every 3 months, and have a bike shop service it every 2000 miles or so. But I've been riding this configuration twice a day for 5 years and had maybe 3 punctures in that time and no problems more severe than that.

Make sure to get disc brakes also! Preferably hydraulic but not necessary if you are on a budget.

Those old caliper brakes need constant replacement, constant adjustment, replacing them requires even more calibration, and tiniest little wobble in your wheel or dent in your rim will make the brake very erratic and wear quickly. I get bad shivers down my spine every time i see such brakes, knowing how much time and frustration I've wasted on maintaining them in the past.

Quality of bike components have gone up past decades so don't be hung up on old experiences. Build quality matters a lot so make sure to get a reputable brand also, not something from the corner of the hardware store, doesn't have to be their top of the line model though, something like 400-800€ should give you a good one.

Regarding flats, try tires with Kevlar reinforcement. Flats went completely away since I switched to Maxxis Overdrive Maxxprotect. They are a bit heavy, but I think not having to care about flats is worth it.

Most flats come from not having enough pressure in the tire, causing friction between tire and tube when the inside deforms, especially when riding over curbs. Bad quality tubes and tires plus improper installation also contributes a lot.

Reinforcement in forms of kevlar and such might provide some additional protection but these types of penetrating punctures are rare in the first place. It obviously doesn't make things worse so for peace of mind and some extra protection could still be worth it anyway. Just the fact that these are high quality tires to begin with will help a lot.

I managed to find the cause of most flats - usually it was a small piece of glass or a small sharp stone (as used in winter on icy roads), still stuck in the tire. Maybe we have sharp roads and soft curbs in Prague :-)

Yeah it's annoying that you need to pay like a thousand bucks AND constant maintenance to have a joyful AND functional mode of conveyance that is so ridiculously simple compared to a car.

I dunno, I just look at the one thing, then look at the other, and think that given what each does, the complexity, the sheer quantity of material, the price, and the reliability, it really seems like a bike that pretty much never breaks should cost about $300—maybe less, I'm allowing a fair amount for lower economy of scale, which I'm not actually sure is a problem—and you should be able to buy any bike around that price and expect that kind of quality.

When I go to use one of our cars and it doesn't work, or something goes wrong while I'm driving, that's very surprising. When we try to use one of our bikes and it's broken, or it breaks while riding, that's just... how bicycles are, I guess. Been that way since I rode (and constantly fixed) bikes as a kid. Was that way when I commuted on one for a while. They're just so very damned unreliable and fiddly.

If fixing a flat takes a long time, I might suggest that your technique could be improved. Even though it seems like a simple task there really is a "right way" and many "wrong ways". There are great videos/articles online.

It really shouldn't take longer than 3-5 minutes.

> It really shouldn't take longer than 3-5 minutes.

    - .5 min: flipping the bike
    - 1 min: finding the tools
    - 1 min: removing the wheel and chain
    - 3 min: removing the tire
    - 1 min: removing the tube
    - 2 min: locating the hole
    - 1 min: cleaning the tube
    - 5 min: applying glue and letting it dry
    - 3 min: installing the patch and holding it just to make sure
    - 2 min: putting back the tube
    - 1 min: putting back the tire
    - 5 min: putting back the wheel and making sure it doesn't touch any thing
    - 1 min: inflating
    - .5 min: flipping the bike back up

    Total estimated time: 27 min
    Actual time I take: ~60 min

Any advice, given that my bike is about 40 years old?

My advice is to go to a bicycle co-op and ask them for pointers. Do not take this as an insult -- I really believe you could benefit greatly from some instruction or a demonstration. If there are no bicycle co-ops in your area, reach out to a knowledgeable friend. Or I can recommend some videos but they are not hard to find. There is _absolutely no way_ that it should take you an hour to fix a flat tire on a bicycle, given the right technique.

(For example, it should not take 5 minutes to replace a wheel. That should take about 10 seconds... I am genuinely curious what you spend your time doing over the 5 minutes and I am sure some practice / instruction could save you frustration. Likewise, even for a very tight tire you should be able to remove it quite quickly. A small tip I can give you for removing a tire is to make sure that the entire bead of the tire is unseated and sitting in the deepest part of the rim. This leaves a good amount of slack to pull the tire off. I usually am able to remove a tire without any tools, but a tire lever can make it even easier when used correctly.)

Certainly patching a tube adds to the time, I didn't include that in my 3-5min estimate. The usual practice is to pack an extra tube while out on a ride and patch the damaged tube later at home. Also worth noting there are modern patches that come with adhesive pre-applied that are very easy & quick to use, just peel and stick.

Cheers and good luck!

No worries but to be clear, do you stand by your opinion for old bikes? The ones I maintain are decades old and those 5 minutes I mentioned easily turn into 30 minutes at times because of brakes and guards working together against me. I've always considered that time to be the price to pay to have a cheap, undesirable (to thieves) bike and your estimate is challenging my world views!

Regarding tire removal, I recently did it like three times in a single week. It was like 15 minutes in sweat and finger pain every time. To get an idea of what one can achieve, can you remove a tire without tools with fat tires only or even thin road tires? Mine were thin, 23mm (less than an inch). By the way, in this instance, it wasn't a beater but a high-end 1970s bike.

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into it because it sounds like I'm missing something.

Don't worry, nothing I said is specific to newer bikes. Definitely, older bikes can present unique challenges but swapping tires hasn't changed. (Unless you get into tubeless... I wouldn't recommend it for road riding...)

How difficult it is to remove or replace a tire really comes down to the tire/rim combinations. Different types and sizes of tires can make a big difference.

Some combinations can definitely be trickier to mount, but with the right it can usually be down without too much physical strain. Mechanics in the bike shop do it many, many times each day after all.