Changing a Bike Inner Tube

There's a right and wrong way to do this. I learned the right way thanks to a book written by a Tour de France bike mechanic/competitor, back in the 70's. And yes, I was already reading non-fiction in the 1970's. I know way more than any sane person should about longbow construction before I was 11. We had a good library in my home town.

1. Verify your bike inner tube is flat by filling it, test, wait, test again. It should be obvious. 
2. Remove the wheel from the bicycle. 
3. Deflate the tube as much as possible. Use a tool like a phillips screw driver for this. You'll need to do this multiple times. 
4. Run your thumb around one side of the wheel, freeing the "bead" from the "rim". Repeat for the other side. 
5. Use the plastic levers common to all repair kits to very GENTLY lift the tire bead over the rim on ONE SIDE ONLY. You don't need to do both beads. Just one is fine. 
6. Grasp the inner tube, which will still have some air in it, from the side opposite the wheel with the stem and extract it from beneath the tire on the same side as the bead is free. This will be obvious. Gently remove all but the stem from beneath the tire. 
7. Remove the stem and extract the inner tube. 
8. Verify that the liner strip which covers the spoke heads/anchors on the wheel is intact. If this is damaged, replace. You can buy or you can use your old inner tube, a cloth tape measure, scissors/shears, and some rubber cement to make a new one. This strip keeps the spokes from tearing holes in your inner tube. Yes, that is a real world problem with bikes assembled by monkeys. Rather than be amazed that monkeys can build bikes, be more impressed that companies charge money for bikes assembled by workers that are monkeys. 
9. Remove new inner tube from box. If it is a slime-type self-sealing tube squish the slime around inside the tube. 
10. Coat the exterior of the new tube with baby powder, specifically talc, not cornstarch. The starch gets wet and causes damage. The talc doesn't. Talcum powder will prevent damage to the tube during inflation and while riding. This is a key trick that isn't shared in any books I've read since 1980. 
11. Partially inflate the new inner tube with a hand pump. I prefer hand pumps to mechanical air compressors. The valve may stick or be partially flooded with goo so be gentle and patient till the goo clears the valve and the air flows into the tube. 
12. Insert the valve stem into the wheel rim. 
13. Insert the tube under the tire. It should fit loosely. 
14. Slip the tire bead back over the rim. It should be much easier now. 
15. Verify the tire stem is seated deep and straight before adding air to the inner tube. 
16. Add about 10 pounds of air, then rotate and bounce the tire. This will help the tire seat to the bead. Verify the stem is still straight and seated all the way down. Add more air. Repeat until you reach about 60 PSI. If you do this correctly the inner tube will be evenly distributed and not torn. This is where that talcum powder has done its job. A surprisingly number of n00bz leave off the powder, inflate all the way, and the tube rips inside the tire. 
17. Once you are close to enough pressure, put the wheel back on the bicycle. 
18. Ride it around for a couple minutes. The tire should be fully seated at this point. 
19. Inflate to full pressure. Do not overinflate. That's how I wrecked my last inner tube, and that was an accident thanks to one of those mechanical air compressors. Again, hand pumps are better. 
20. Remember that lower pressures roll over stuff more easily and reduce punctures. The lower the pressure you use, the more fun you will have riding because the tires will absorb a lot of road bumps, like a shock absorber, and increase your contact patch. 

It is astonishing just how many people get these steps wrong. I've read so many complaints from people who buy bikes built by monkeys and tried riding it before deflating the tire to verify there's even a spoke strip inside the wheel. They don't own talcum powder, and don't adjust their brakes or know how to adjust their gear shifts so they work properly. They spend three times the value of the bike on mechanics who adjust things minimally so they can do it many times to get even with the jerk who bought a bike from someone cheaper. This is how bike shops really are, too. Their money comes from component upgrade sales, which is pretty ridiculous since the only thing that's really changed over the years is available materials. Aluminum has been around since before WW2. Plastic since after. And carbon fiber since the 90's. Most components can be had in perfectly reasonable weight for a very cheap price because the technology was perfected by 1975, or possibly 1994 if you include carbon fiber, which I generally don't. Any bike that costs more than a motor scooter is for racing events, not riding around with a club. If your club are such jerks they ride faster than you can keep up, such that the 2-5 pounds of difference actually matters, get new friends. You are carrying that much water in your blood and will piss it against a tree in a couple stops along the way. You are the heavy thing. You are the engine. You are the wind-drag. Fussing with oddly shaped spokes and carbon fiber wheels is silly and mostly just about money. Get new friends. Ride for fun, or for exercise, which is irrelevant to the weight of your bicycle or your speed. Its about heart rate and duration, and you can do that with a mommy bike up a hill. There's good reason I don't belong to riding clubs. They're just rich snobs showing off, and its not very much fun. If you want to have extra fun, put a radio/music box on your bike and ride with that playing, up the roads that end with a pretty view. That's fun.