# Did my bicycle tire cap vanish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 12, 2022, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799 "2022-11-12T14:46:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/1 "2022-11-12T14:46:35Z")
Filling up my bike tire this morning, I carefully placed the tire cap on the platform above my rear wheel, and when I was done, it wasn’t there. I spent the next twenty minutes searching the area (flat pavement, sloping very gently towards a drain about twenty feet away) and could not find it anywhere. So I’m making a trip to AutoZone to pick up some new tire caps today, but it’s just the most infuriating thing. I may go at the pavement with a broom to see if I can dislodge it from its devilishly ingenious spot on the pavement. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/2 "2022-11-12T14:53:48Z")
Any cuffs on those pants legs? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/3 "2022-11-12T15:11:42Z")
It’s right next to the lock washer from my motorcycle seat, which fell from a bracket on the motorcycle down onto the driveway and then vanished completely into the aether. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/4 "2022-11-12T15:14:31Z")
Buy a new one. It’s the fastest and most reliable way to find something you lost. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/5 "2022-11-12T16:52:26Z")
It’s just the most frustrating thing. I’ve now swept the entire parking spot, and those adjacent to it, with a broom and found nothing. It’s almost like “Things fall down” stopped applying. How far could one of those things conceivably have bounced? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/6 "2022-11-12T17:18:36Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > How far could one of those things conceivably have bounced? You don’t want to know. You can drop another one to see how far they can bounce. Take the cap off your other wheel and try. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/7 "2022-11-12T17:29:17Z")
Got a 10mm socket? Drop it on the ground, your tire cap is right next to it. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/8 "2022-11-12T17:29:35Z")
Again, it’s one of those denizens of the Stephen King _Dark Tower_ universe reached through and took it. When that person has finished with it in ten years (saving Gilead in the process), they will return it. Of course, that will be five years before you acquired it in the first place. How do you think _you_ got it? ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/9 "2022-11-12T17:40:17Z")
Ipso facto proof of alternate universes. Lord knows what they’re doing with all those sockets, screws, bolts, washers, pens, and car keys. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/10 "2022-11-12T17:44:47Z")
And my wedding ring, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/11 "2022-11-12T17:50:28Z")
I once spent, I swear, a good 10 minutes or more looking for a bread tie. I got the bread out to make a sandwich, took off the twisty tie, put it on the counter, pulled out a couple of slices of bread, closed the bread bag up and… the tie was gone. Nowhere to be found. I looked all over the kitchen for it. I finally pulled one out of our zipper baggie of spares that we keep in the bread drawer. It was like “it was just here five seconds ago! Where the hell did it go?” Never did figure that one out. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/12 "2022-11-12T17:57:14Z")
What happened to **Shoeless**? He was here just a minute ago, telling us about an errant bread tie. Now he’s gone. **SHOELESS**! Where are you? ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/13 "2022-11-12T17:58:32Z")
You would almost swap the actual thing itself for the knowledge of where it went, wouldn’t you? Replacing the tire will cost me a few minutes of driving and a few bucks, but the knowledge is priceless at this point. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/14 "2022-11-12T18:02:38Z")
Take solace in the fact that your selfless sacrifice has saved all the universes of the Tower. All things serve the Beam. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/15 "2022-11-12T19:07:30Z")
Here I am! Sorry, I fell in between the couch cushions. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/16 "2022-11-12T19:07:55Z")
At least you have a plausible explanation: it bounced away or got caught in the tread or something similarly believable. I once lost a quart Nalgene bottle that I used as my bedside water bottle. It lived on my nightstand, leaving only to get washed or refilled. Then one day it was simply gone. Poof. I looked under the bed and around the bedroom, then expanded my search to the rest of the house. No dice. The kids denied using it (and they would have no reason to lie about that), ditto wife, and we hadn’t had any guests over who might have wandered off with it. We had no pets that couldve taken it as a chew toy. It had simply vanished. To this day, 5 years and 2 house moves later, I still have no idea what happened to it. I’m kind of bummed as I bought it from the college bookstore when I graduated and that design is no longer available. As far as valve stem dust caps go those are a good thing to have spares of anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/17 "2022-11-12T19:42:03Z")
This happened in the last two weeks. I was getting ready to travel for a two-week visit with my family. I wear hearing aids, so I got my main (tabletop) hearing aid charger and my small (travel) charger unplugged and ready to go. (My mild OCD requires having a back-up for everything. I also took my old hearing aids.) I put my travel charger in my laptop bag and my regular charger in my suitcase. I never used my regular charger during the trip, but when I got home and unpacked, I could not find it or even the charger cord for it. Cue hours, then days, of looking for it in everything we took with us. No luck. I finally gave up and bought a used one on eBay. It arrived two days ago and it works fine. Yesterday morning I noticed that my old charger was on a shelf under the sink. I apparently disconnected it and mistakenly laid it there when I was getting another healthcare product from that location just prior to our trip. QED ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/18 "2022-11-12T20:05:29Z")
This one I have a sort of explanation of, though it doesnt make much sense. I was returning from a foreign trip, and I’d remembered to pack my back brush, which I often missed in the shower when I went on these jaunts. This time, I used it several times and I distinctly remembered packing it (it was long and awkward, and this time it was damp, having just been used in the shower before I packed and went to the airport.) But when I unpacked, it was nowhere to be found. My simple and complete explanation was that it had been removed during the time my suitcase was out of my sight, either by airline personnel or by customs. It made no sense other than someone spotting it and saying “Say, I could use one of those” but as satisfying an answer as it was (it was made out of wood, so it set off no metal detector, and was in my luggage, not my carryon bag) it still baffles me. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/19 "2022-11-12T20:16:45Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > simply vanished. Like an old oak table. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2022, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799/20 "2022-11-12T20:22:54Z")
Though I’ve never understood the physics of it, I’m under the impression that things like your valve stem cap _and_ the missing sock from the dryer all end up in Fresno, California. And if you happen to be _in_ Fresno, then you know I’m right. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-my-bicycle-tire-cap-vanish/974799.md?page=2)