Repairs, repairs, repairs
Yesterday evening found me in the garage again. Simple task: clean the bike after a very muddy day, replace brake pads with new ones for the trip, with the added twist that the wheels need some centering. If you have ever tried truing bike wheels at home, you will know that it can be a never ending task. After the pads were on, I found a way to pull the brakes close to the rim, set the spokes and follow up with the cable screw to bring the brakes closer again, bringing the wheel to stop wherever it was out of the rotation plane. This worked but took some time. Around 11 PM, I realized I had mounted the front tire the wrong way – it has a fixed rotation direction, but I can’t just flip the wheel since the reelight front light has to be on the right side for the fold to work. Ok, I unmounted the tire, changed the position, mounted it back, and pumped it up to 6 bars. However, I couldn’t help noticing a slight bulge near the valve, a sure sign that I had done the mounting wrong and the inner tube was pinched under the tire rim. I deflated the tire and fixed the pinch, pumped it up again and mounted it on the now shiny bike. Today in the morning, when I took the birdy off the service stand, the front tire was flat. I tried pumping it up again, but all the air was lost immediately – seemed like a big hole. When I took the tire off, I found a massive hole. Seemes like I twisted the tube somehow when I mounted it back, and part of it got pinched and burst.
I already have new tubes ordered (and it is super difficult to find 18″ tubes with presta valves, I can tell you!), but I had to order an extra one, and now I am waiting anxiously for the bike shop package to arrive. Oh, and I took the kids out to the local pumptrack in the evening, where I landed somehow in a wrong way after a cool jump, snagging the edge of the front tire of my mountain bike – another puncture! In the end, I rode my youngest son’s 20″ bike home, driving my mountain bike beside me with one hand. That front wheel will have to wait a couple of weeks.
