Two members of the North Baltimore Bike Brigade were out of commission last week, including Eleanor R. One Tuesday afternoon, I was rushing to make a meeting (for which I was already late) and hopped on ElRo without noticing that I had a flat front tire. I still didn’t notice after falling off of ElRo and riding her a few feet, at which point I finally heard the crunching sound of rim-on-gravel.
Luckily, another NBBB member was close by and rode down to my office to replace the tube. I got home safely and was practicing replacing a tube on my own when . . .
POP!
As it turned out, I had a tear in the tire as well as the tube. Two replacement tires arrived this past week, and they are securely attached to ElRo. I was back in the saddle riding to work on Thursday — and now I know how to change a tire!
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06.21.08 at 4:22 pm
bob
One of the most common bicycle ailments, the flat tire, is possibly the most complicated to fix. You will certainly get quicker with practice, but every wheel, tube, tire, valve, tire iron and pump have their own idiosyncrasies.
For this reason, I always spend on good quality tires. My steel Panasonic grocery-getter (purchase price: $25) has 2 Conti Gatorskins on it ($40 per tire). However, no flatsies.
06.21.08 at 10:14 pm
Johnny
ElRo’s got Kevlar belted tires now, and a spare tube on board. I don’t know anything about the Kevlar thing though. I’m riding on 700 x 40s — semi monster!
06.22.08 at 12:37 am
mule1
Damn that last picture looks like Christmas came early. Glad to hear you’re back on the road.
06.23.08 at 4:40 pm
Johnny
Oh, yeah, I forgot: that’s the rim pre-sanding. Geez, aluminum and the road don’t mix! LOL
They look much better now. I put the rim on my truing stand, and it’s fine.