Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Operational report, lessons learned

Today was an unusual ride in a couple of ways.

First, I rode out about 2.5 miles and had to stop to change a flat.

The repair was out of the ordinary. Usually I use my hand pump to locate the hole in the tube and then line the tube up with the tire to locate the cause of the flat. Today was a little windy and I couldn't hear the air hissing out of the tube. Eventually I decided to try something else and instead started to search the tire. I ran my finger around the inside of the tire and found nothing. I then began a meticulous examination of the exterior of the tire and on the first time around the wheel found a piece of embedded glass. I lined up the tube and the tire and, voila, hole in tube.

I fixed it.

I was only 2 miles from home so I tried an experiment. I used the hand pump to pump up the tire. It wasn't easy and I couldn't get much air into the tire. But I got it firm, if not hard, and decided to try to ride it. And I made it home. So that gives me another option in a tire emergency, I can get enough air with the hand pump to ride. Not ride fast, mind you, the tire was pretty soft. But I was not riding on the rim, I was riding on the tire and I made it home just fine.

Where I used my floor pump to run that baby back up to 120 psi and went ahead and went out for a ride.

It was a nice evening and I had a nice ride.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A good lesson to learn. Today I learned that if you get a stick jammed in the rear derailleur wheel (or whatever it is called), the pedals will not turn.

Gino said...

Jockey wheel. Or rear derailleur jockey wheel. Or rear derailleur wheel. Or stick holder.

Anonymous said...

Funny.