I collected my new bike on Thursday evening. It has all sorts of exciting features my dead bike did not have, such as panniers and extra gears for hills.
As it has been sitting around doing little for the past 13 years or so, I gave it a wash and a tidy up, then took it for a ride. On my return, I realised that the front tyre had split. Fortunately, I have two spare bikes with tyres in the same size, so I cannibalised one if them. Having put the wheel back on the bike, I put a lot of effort into pumping up the tyre - running on flat tyres reduces efficiency.
Alas, when I tried to disengage the pump, the inner tube burst rather loudly. I didn't really hear it myself; I think it just made my hearing shut down. Did you know that inner tubes have powder in? I didn't, but now I do. HWSNBN came out to see what the noise was (apparently it was easier to hear within the house), and fiddled with the bike a bit while I waited to see whether or not my hearing would come back. Once I had accepted the ringing in my ears, I cannibalised the inner tube from the dead bike and tried again. This time, it worked. Thank goodness. In future, I shall only inflate it until I have to use my own bodyweight to press the handle down; seemingly any more pressure is a bad thing.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, I shall take it on a ride. If it rains, I shall do organ practice instead.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
About Me
- Optistatic
- North, United Kingdom
- I am a person with a job. Sometimes I like to think about things, and will share my musings with those unfortunates who happen to get in the way at the time. You can e-mail me at: optistatic at hotmail dot co dot uk. If you do this, nothing will happen because I let that email lapse years ago 🙂
Blog Archive
-
▼
2008
(72)
-
▼
September
(22)
- So very happy
- Grr
- Bad me
- Newsflash
- Bibble
- Getting boring
- Is Jesus trying to kill me?
- *Cough*
- Picking hymns
- Climbing
- Whoops!
- Stuck
- Giving blood
- Dark and scary
- Benedictine est...
- Aaargh! Helmets!
- Bang!
- In which I reveal my most embarrassing and dangero...
- Digger!
- Soap, vegetables and secondary school
- Thinking about it...
- Bike and soap
-
▼
September
(22)
2 comments:
That was a nice but embarressing story, but also why it is useful to have a guy around who is more than ready to "check and take change of a situation" - I am however confused on the "new bike" and "sitting around for 13 years" - how does it ride?
My chair has tires that get pumped to 105 lbs of pressure so when I go from 50 lbs (after a few weeks) to 105 again, I just push and it GLIDES! So you are SO right about pressure making a difference. However, last year finishing the breast cancer race AFTER I pressurized the tires for the race and half way through one blew but I refused to stop - racing with a blown tire sucks!
Have fun with the new bike
"Check and take charge of a situation"? Well, he checked, but he didn't really take charge. I am grateful to him for checking, though - it's good to know he doesn't just leave me for dead.
The bike goes really well - it can coast for ages, I found. I think it was well looked after by its original owner, and has been kept in a garage. My bum is still sore from riding it on Sunday, but I don't think that's to do with its age. I am SO glad sitting down on a chair does not involve the bits of bum I use on my bike. Sometimes it's fun to have plenty of bum to spare.
105lbs? That's quite well-pressured. My current front tyre says it can take 60. I love it when tyres are excessively hard, though - it's so very easy.
It's a pity you didn't have a spare wheel all ready to go at the breast cancer race - any time it took to change it would probably have been made up with an increase in speed. Doing anything with a blown tyre sucks.
Post a Comment