The bike is now resting comfortably outside my office, happy with her new front tire and awaiting installation of the new back tire when I have time on the weekend.
(Nothing like an emergency trip to the bike shop to buy and install a new tube and tire, huh.)
I had a bike in the past that always got flats. Drove me nuts. I was starting to take it personally …
Can anyone tell me how to quickly find a puncture? I’m hopeless at it.
elbows: I did that too, once, but there was no motorcycle to blame. I left it in a garage over the winter but didn’t notice the gaping holes in the garage, so by spring it was up to its hubcaps in snow.
I eventually managed to get the chain moving again, after a weekend with a jar of oil and two pairs of pliers, but she was never quite the same after that.
My bicycle repair kit was:
Spare tube. Pump. Tire… er. Lever things. Forgot the word. You use them to get the tire on and off. Six inch adjustable wrench. Allen key set.
Extra chain and chain pin tool, for repairing snapped chains. Because they happen. You take the snap, punch it out, replace it with bit from spare chain, keep going.
You can get tires with kevlar lining, you know. Great things.
If the puncture was big enough that the tyre goes flat in a couple minutes, then it’s easy to find. Take the tube out (keeping track of the alignment as mentioned above) and pump it up til it’s about 4 inches in diameter, assuming a MTB tube. You should be able to hear the air hissing out, or run your hand around the outside til you feel it. Replacing the rim tape is a good idea too as the spoke nipples can cut the tube from the inside.
… they’re not actually called ‘spoke nipples,’ are they? blush
Man, what with the rubbers and blown tubes and so on …
I once went to a ‘bike sexy’ theme party, it was hilarious. People made costumes out of old tubes, and hid bells and lights in suggestive places. Great fun.
I had a problem once with multiple flats. It turned out to be a hole in the tire itself, but I did not see it at the time. After several frustrating slow leaks that almost left me stranded in Camden(!) I decided a self-sealing inner tube would be the answer to my problems (I was a naive young biker at this time).
Well, I found out those things have limits. I was biking happily along one day, pleased that I had gone two days without a flat, when all of a sudden my inner tube gave me a slimey green money shot through the (now enlarged) hole in the tire.
