Tire maintenance nightmare

It was very cool again today but . . .

At this point in late May, when the cloud bank finally rolls back we all discover that the sun is SO HIGH in the sky that even if the day is cool the sun angle still ends up making the day seem pretty dang pleasant. That was today.

I wanted to get an early start and possibly take a long ride to enjoy the cloudless sky. But as I rolled down the driveway shortly past noon I felt the always unpleasant sensation of rear wheel rim making direct contact with the pavement. This only occurs if the rear tire is not providing the essential buffer to keep those two too hard surfaces apart.

Flat tire.

It is too early in the year to have already had multiple flats. Honestly, some years I have zero flats. Already this year, two.

I quickly switched into bicycle repairman mode and got started. The steps in the process come pretty automatically by now and I was soon confronting the non-performing tube. A step in tire repair that should never be overlooked is figuring out why the tire went flat in the first place. The usual first step in the procedure is to pump some air into the tube and find the place where air is escaping. This time much to my surprise the tube seemed to hold air just fine.

I was skeptical but after doing a little more investigation on the inside of the tire itself (the usual second step in the procedure) during which I discovered no obvious sharp things I went ahead and put the whole business back together. I remounted the tire and began to pump.

Well, this time it wouldn't pump at all. Curious.

The whole thing came off again. This time I discovered three ugly little holes ripped into a small area of the tube from which air absolutely hissed. Funny I couldn't find it before and ominously it seemed all too much like the year's earlier flat tire where I had multiple holes in the tube. Using the tube as a guide this time I located the general area of the tire where the hole in the tube had been when the tube was inside the tire (step 3). The search resumed for sharp things and again came up empty.

I wanted to get on the road so I planned to replace the tube for now and patch the hole later. I recently purchased some new tubes so I unboxed one of the new tubes and after applying a few pump strokes to ensure that the tube held air, I put everything back together. I attempted for a second time to pump the mounted tire and for the second time it wouldn't pump at all.

So the tire came apart again. Ominously the new tube had the same three hole pattern ripped into the same spot half way around from the valve.

The way it goes with tire repair, you are pretty safe in assuming that when you find ANY problem with the tube you have found THE problem with the tube. But there is an adage which says, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Shame on me. This time I wasn't going to be fooled.

I took the tube out. I took the tire completely off the rim. I turned the tire inside out and went completely around the inside of the tire inch by inch with the tire clasped between thumb and forefinger, searching for the cause of the flats. I found nothing. I turned the tire back to right side out and repeated the process on the outside of the tire. I then took up the bare tire rim (which, by the way, weighs NOTHING) and did a similar examination of the tire seating area. I searched for any sharp spot or roughness which could be causing the flats. Nothing.

But with that level of examination complete, this time when the whole thing went back together (with a second brand new tube) I was cautiously optimistic that it would hold air. The tire pumped up just fine and I was at long last prepared to ride.

The problem seems obvious. Tire repair had consumed most of the time during which I usually ride. I had been in bicycle repairman mode for more than 90 minutes.

It was a sunny May day, so I went riding anyway. I ended up finishing my ride only after the very earliest part of rush hour was under way which I don't like but which I survived. It was such a nice day that I ended up finishing the two hour ride in a shade under two hours, my fastest time of the year.

I felt strong, I felt fast.

I didn't feel like taking pictures. This is a collection of signs that piqued my curiosity at the corner of Lydia and Hamline. Hamline is clearly also Ramsey County 50 at this point. Lydia has to STOP. And there is something for rent down there towards the right (south if you care). That's a church parking lot across the street.I find it curious that Ramsey County numbers the county highways while also giving them street names which are letters. This is Hamline and also County Highway 50. Nearby the street most often referred to as County Road C is also Ramsey County Highway 23. I find it curious.

I have returned home now and am undecided about the fate of the two tubes. One of the tubes has never even been fully inflated much less have any miles ridden on it. That tube seems like it should be repaired. But even the other one has only 424 miles on it, not enough for the trash heap.

*pause*

Yes, I do keep track of such things as mileage between flats, it is one of the reasons for keeping a bike log. And just in case anyone wonders, I only have 810 miles on that set of tires, again far too few for the trash heap.

But enough tire maintenance for one day, I shall make these momentous decisions on the morrow.

TCWUTH has returned from France. Strasbourg looks nice.

Lastly, it is not a manuscript intended for professional peer review and publication. It is a bicycle blog, more in the nature of a journal. Within the stylistic considerations of a BLOG I feel completely justified in occasionally writing a sentence, stopping, skipping a line, and starting again. If this offends it offends, perhaps I should be sorry. I do this whole blog thing to amuse myself. I readily concede that I am always pleased if someone else is also even slightly entertained. But for my violation of the requirements of formal composition rules I apologize not. Please everyone be assured that it is definitely not my intention to be harsh here but what is under discussion is, after all, an informal collection of doggerel composed by someone referring to himself as GZMOOHOO. It's not the Magna Carta.