How to get better at changing a tire (or, more accurately, the intertube inside a road bike tire).
A Step-by-Step Guide:
1. Discover your back tube is flat outside the sausage company on Damen/Fullerton. As you put on your spare under the wan street light... inhale the peppery scent of that night's batch, while the factory workers heading out to Popeye's during their break look at you as though you're a unicorn.
2. Realize, about 2 miles down the road, that same tube is flat again... decide there's something sharp imbedded inside the tire, decide you'll just walk the bike home from here, considering you don't have a 2nd spare.
3. In the morning, decide that the valve on that tube was really the problem, it looks tweaked and feels loose. Decide that with proper tightening, it will work just fine.
4. Later that same day, as you are getting ready to leave home for work, realize that the tube has deflated again, and it needs to be changed. Change tire in living/bike storage room, sweating profusely because you already put your rain gear on.
5. About 4 miles into your ride-to-work, in spitting rain -- realize the same friggin' back tube is flat again. Think, 'OK, there is something in this tire, and if I don't find it, I'm not going to make it to the office on time.' Change tube outside grocery store under dry overhang. Everything goes well -- you find and pick out a sharp piece of gravel (gotcha!).
6. In your enthusiasm, while using your hand pump outside said grocery store, the valve breaks off your brand new tire. It is flat again, and that was your only spare.
7. Walk bike .25 miles to nearest outdoor gear store. Purchase 2 tires, and 2 Cliff Bars (you're frickin' starving by now... the Maple Nut is awesome, by the way).
8. Change tire along side of industrial complex, faster than ever before... combination of newfound skill, and being kind-of ticked off. Ride to work... make it... with back tire fully inflated. Phew.
Comments (2)
Kye ,
Did all that happen to you? Some people have all the luck ...lol
Tires/tubes/air pressure/repair kits, ect.... Is one of my favorite subjects ....
Short Story:
A few years back when I was doing short street races (25-50 mile urban racing) I had a hot pink Diamondback, 14 speed, 27inch Matrix aero rims, racing slick tires that had to be inflated @ 135 psi.
I had one of those aero 'cheater bar' extensions so I could grip, duck down and really transmit every inch of life my legs had. I remember going southbound on Lemont Rd. (down hill, haul'in ...). Right before the Lemont Rd. bridge, I looked down at my digital speedo and was doing 47 MPH... and still gaining speed! This was just a casual day,
Yet I had no safety equipment. I was wearing bike shorts and a speedo shirt/sunglasses. I got to the bottom of the hill, and coasted over the bridge (approx. 1 mile). Then I was able to coast halfway up a giant hill until I had to pedal again. If I would have had a blow out @ that speed, I would have been a cooked goose. I'm more careful these days.
Anyhow, point being-- proper tires/air pressure and Strait rims are a #1 responsibility of a rider who wants the best performance. Also, if I did get a blow out during a race, chances are slim I would place. To minimize down time repairing a tire on the road, I of course had quik release rims, a quik tire/rim tool kit, and a portable co2 cartrage refill adapter. I could change a tire and have 135 psi. in the changed tube in less than 3 min., back on the road in a flash . But let me warn you, when a tire with 135 psi. pops, you will think a bomb went off just inches from your buttocks. It's a good bang and makes the tube look like spaghetti ...lol.
Here's the funny thing ... I thought having the co2's was an easy and convienient way to always fill my tires. Yet nobody told me that the properties of the gas allow it (through osmosis) to pass through rubber in a short time. My tires were
losing air, slowly. It did not occur to me and I would just fill it with more co2 ... Well this went on till I realized I was Blinded By Science ....LOL.....
Co2 is for emergency only . Use normal atmospheric air when filling tires if possible.
Cheers!
Posted by Jim Murray | November 19, 2009 1:50 PM
Posted on November 19, 2009 13:50
Kye:
I'm sorry to laugh at your misfortune but I just had too. This will/has happen(ed) once to all of us and now you are wiser and you will never do it again. You had the added bonus of a crappy day for weather so you get double points. Might I suggest two things (one is obvious): 1. always run your fingers around the inside of the tire to check that whatever popped the tube is not still in there, and also run your fingers around the inside of the rim to make sure that's not the problem either. 2. Try something like Mr Tuffy tire liners. Thousands of miles with no issues.
So now we have a slight issue. Your previous post about the measuring stick makes mention of the 40° day and your commute. 40? Um, Kye dear, 40° is still shorts weather. Ok ok, maybe the thin tights weather. We bike commuters want to wholeheartedly accept you into The Club but 40° isn't going to get you voted in so I think we have another requirement. On Jan 20th each year they have a ride to commemorate the coldest day in Chicago history(wind chill went to -93°). This is a required bike-to-work-day. Please join us but you're going to have to leave early and take in the festivities at Daley Plaza at 8am or so. Now "The Club" really wants to have you as a member because it's mostly a bunch of smelly guys that are a bit whacked, and you women-folk don't come along too often, but if we let everyone in then it goes from being a club to being critical mass. So let's say if you put in 2 days a week during the whole winter, continue to make me laugh with your posts, start writing about why guys look better with shaved legs then we'll let you in. You've passed quite a few of the tests already (multiple flat tires on one ride was high on the list)but winter really separates the girls from the women. My guess is that you'll fail because Good Morning America will call and off you go to the greener side of the fence, but at least we'll be able to say, "I knew her when..."
Ride fast, ride warm, go dog go,
Speed
Posted by Speed Racer` | November 19, 2009 7:34 PM
Posted on November 19, 2009 19:34