RE/
For everyone, it is a good idea to compare your pumps gauge to a
quality, seperate one. There are often differences and it is nice to
be able to compensate for them.

I have a (reliable?) dial pressure gauge that I use on my car. Cost a few
bucks, has a 6 or 8" pigtail on it...

That plus one of those little Schraeder/Presta adapters lets me check up on my
pump easily.
--
PeteCresswell

Some time ago I mentioned I feared I suffered from overtraining syndrome.
Today I found out my specialized floor pump only inflated my tires to 2 bar,
whilst 7 bar was shown on the meter. I never checked the tire manually,
since I trusted the pump....

How an experienced cyclist could think a tire inflated to only 30psi was
pressurized to 100psi I cannot imagine.

Mike Krueger wrote:

How an experienced cyclist could think a tire inflated to only 30psi was
pressurized to 100psi I cannot imagine.
Neither can I, but it must have gone slowly. The pump must have indicated
the right value, but gave a little less pressure every day. I blamed this
13 years old bike, that is rather heavy partly for the fact that my average
went down, the cold weather didn't help either and I never cleaned the
chain, since it is my bad weather bike. I don't know of course for how long
the pump has been defective.

Fact is that after properly inflating the tire, my average went up quite a
bit. After inflating it, I felt the difference immediately.

Derk

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:51:19 +0100, Derk
wrote:


Neither can I, but it must have gone slowly. The pump must have indicated
the right value, but gave a little less pressure every day. I blamed this
13 years old bike, that is rather heavy partly for the fact that my average
went down, the cold weather didn't help either and I never cleaned the
chain, since it is my bad weather bike. I don't know of course for how long
the pump has been defective.

Fact is that after properly inflating the tire, my average went up quite a
bit. After inflating it, I felt the difference immediately.

Derk

Derk, wasn't it noticable when you squeezed the tire by hand? Maybe, I
am in the minority, but I generally will give my tires a quick squeeze
once or twice during a ride, while stopped.

I remember someone posting that they thought something was wrong, with
the rider, when climbing was more difficult. Only to discover later,
that they were in their largeer chainring. It sounds silly, but I
think sometimes, people become so used to doing something, that they
don't pay attention to it. Or???


Life is Good!
Jeff

Hello Jeff,

Jeff Starr wrote:

wasn't it noticable when you squeezed the tire by hand?
I must admit I never checked the tire by hand, since I completely trusted
the pump....


It sounds silly, but I think sometimes, people become so used to doing
something, that they don't pay attention to it. Or???
You can also call it laziness ;-)

Greetings, Derk

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 09:01:08 -0600, Jeff Starr wrote:

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:51:19 +0100, Derk
wrote:


Neither can I, but it must have gone slowly. The pump must have indicated
the right value, but gave a little less pressure every day. I blamed this
13 years old bike, that is rather heavy partly for the fact that my average
went down, the cold weather didn't help either and I never cleaned the
chain, since it is my bad weather bike. I don't know of course for how long
the pump has been defective.

Fact is that after properly inflating the tire, my average went up quite a
bit. After inflating it, I felt the difference immediately.

Derk

Derk, wasn't it noticable when you squeezed the tire by hand? Maybe, I
am in the minority, but I generally will give my tires a quick squeeze
once or twice during a ride, while stopped.

I remember someone posting that they thought something was wrong, with
the rider, when climbing was more difficult. Only to discover later,
that they were in their largeer chainring. It sounds silly, but I
think sometimes, people become so used to doing something, that they
don't pay attention to it. Or???

I started a ride last week thinking I was feeble and my legs were really flat -
sick and work had kept me off the bike for just over a week so no surprise...
About a mile in the chain untangled from it's half-jammed in the rear der status
with a "thwack" that rang through the frame and suddenly I was about two cogs
faster than I'd been.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to just come up with a preflight
checklist and go through it every time until the habit's there and includes
everything. Yeah, I squeeze the tires, shake the fork and snug the skewers
(especially the rear - got a scare once when the wheel cocked jumping across a
busy street) but I should do the rest and be sure. It's easy to make fun of the
guys missing something dumb until it's me.

Ron

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 04:42:01 GMT, RonSonic
wrote:


I started a ride last week thinking I was feeble and my legs were really flat -
sick and work had kept me off the bike for just over a week so no surprise...
About a mile in the chain untangled from it's half-jammed in the rear der status
with a "thwack" that rang through the frame and suddenly I was about two cogs
faster than I'd been.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to just come up with a preflight
checklist and go through it every time until the habit's there and includes
everything. Yeah, I squeeze the tires, shake the fork and snug the skewers
(especially the rear - got a scare once when the wheel cocked jumping across a
busy street) but I should do the rest and be sure. It's easy to make fun of the
guys missing something dumb until it's me.

Ron

Speaking of skewers, I think it is one of those things that people
should always check, when the bike has been left unattended.

Unfortunately, after it happened, I found out an acquaintance had
removed the bike from a friends front wheel. She had somehow run the
lock through, in such a way, that only the front tire was secured. He
thought it was funny to leave the wheel there and hide the rest of the
bike. Ha ha?! Anyway, after the joke was over, he put the wheel back
on. The bike had lawyer tabs, so he had to loosen the skewers. If I
hadn't checked it and tightened it properly, she would of had
problems. He didn't even have in straight. Trouble is, it was getting
dark out and she may not have noticed.

Assholes and vandals have been known to loosen skewers. So I think
they should always be checked.



Life is Good!
Jeff

That's another thing I don't understand. Why don't you pop on a new inner
tube or patch the thing?

Good point.

I ride with latex inner tubes and have to pump my
tire before EVERY ride. When I forget to do that, after the first corner I
notice (they drop to 4 bar overnight) and return home to pump the tire up.

Since my slow leak is so slow, the effect is gradual. I lose about 2 or
3psi every ride (to/from class) so I wouldn't notice it over the long run.

Phil