Flat again today but prepared.

AMuzi wrote:
On 5/16/2021 11:40 AM, Mark cleary wrote:
So today at mile 50 heading back into town I hit a huge deep pothole. A
car was passing so I really had to hold my line and not avoid it. Sure
enough in a hurry a pinch flat.

My first confession is I still had one CO2 canister so I loaded it and
frankly I must be an idiot. I manage to get some of it in the tire but
it seems to leak out somewhere around the fitting/stem as I hold the
chuck. No problem got my new Leyzene Road drive out and got it up nicely
in a hurry. Frankly it would be just about as fast with just using the pump.

So I then go on and finish the ride 6 more miles for 56 today. I check
the rear tire at home with floor pump that has gauge and the PSI was 84.
No issues that works fine. I then topped it off to around 100.

I am I the only idiot who has no CO2 skills and even it I did would find
it not dependable to ever really rely on.
Deacon mark


As with so many human activities, you don't use CO2
cartridges every day and there's a long time span between
events (hopefully) so you, like most people, are always a
rank amateur at it.

I always ended my flat-tire classes with the note that, 'a
flat is never at a convenient time, often associated with
rain, heat, cold, mosquitoes or just running late to be
somewhere else, That makes your psychology second rate.
Knowing that you have done this successfully here tonight
should help your attitude in future.'

You seem to have the right attitude and good for you!


This! Why I gave up with CO2 since a pump worked and wasn’t difficult to
use!

Roger Merriman

AMuzi writes:

On 5/16/2021 11:40 AM, Mark cleary wrote:
So today at mile 50 heading back into town I hit a huge deep
pothole. A car was passing so I really had to hold my line and not
avoid it. Sure enough in a hurry a pinch flat.

My first confession is I still had one CO2 canister so I loaded it
and frankly I must be an idiot. I manage to get some of it in the
tire but it seems to leak out somewhere around the fitting/stem as I
hold the chuck. No problem got my new Leyzene Road drive out and got
it up nicely in a hurry. Frankly it would be just about as fast with
just using the pump.

So I then go on and finish the ride 6 more miles for 56 today. I
check the rear tire at home with floor pump that has gauge and the
PSI was 84. No issues that works fine. I then topped it off to
around 100.

I am I the only idiot who has no CO2 skills and even it I did would
find it not dependable to ever really rely on.
Deacon mark


As with so many human activities, you don't use CO2 cartridges every
day and there's a long time span between events (hopefully) so you,
like most people, are always a rank amateur at it.

Reminds me of a job I had quite a while ago -- part of the onboarding
process was live practice with a bunch of fire extinguishers. Fire
departments everywhere should provide this service.

I always ended my flat-tire classes with the note that, 'a flat is
never at a convenient time, often associated with rain, heat, cold,
mosquitoes or just running late to be somewhere else, That makes your
psychology second rate. Knowing that you have done this successfully
here tonight should help your attitude in future.'

My most frustrating series of flats ocurred after dark on a very humid
night. I could not finish a patch without having to walk to several
different spots to avoid the swarming mosquitos. The first few patches
didn't quite seal, but it was a relief anyway to start moving faster
than the vermin could fly. After that I put a few single serving DEET
wipes in my saddle bag. I should check on them, they probably have
holes and are all dried out.

On Sun, 16 May 2021 14:10:14 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:
For many years back in the 1980s, I had a Zefal HP pump given to me because it fell off the guy's bike and was run over by a car. I got a length of hardwood dowel the same diameter as the inside of the pump, chamfered the end of the dowel a bit and then drove it into the barrel of the pump. That got rid of the crushed area and the pump worked fine for many years afterwards. There aren't too many bicycle pumps you could do that with.

The guys at the bicycle shop were astounded that the pump was repairable.

Cheers

http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/pics/bicycles/misc/bicycle-pumps.jpg
Note the Peugeot HP pump, 2nd row from the top. It's basically a
re-branded Zefal HP. The pump end was flattened in some long
forgotten accident. I tried to restore it to its original form with a
dowel, but failed. Too much damage to the pump tube. Since I had
nothing to lose at this point, I cut away the damaged area,
effectively decreasing the length to about half of the original. For
comparison, a full size Zefal HP pump is shown as the 2nd pump from
the bottom in the photo. I reinforced the pump end with a 1/2" ABS
water pipe end cap and some glue. I also had to shorten the piston
and cut the spring in half. In effect, I converted it into a
mini-pump. It worked, but not very well. I haven't shown it to
anyone at the local LSB's.


--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 3:06:08 PM UTC-4, AMuzi wrote:
I always ended my flat-tire classes with the note that, 'a
flat is never at a convenient time, often associated with
rain, heat, cold, mosquitoes or just running late to be
somewhere else...

We could probably do a thread on worst flat tire situations.

Mine was in Acadia National Park, at dusk, on a long marshy path that was a short cut from our
campsite to some road or other. The flat was the rear of the tandem. My wife and kid were
free to swat at the million mosquitoes, but my hands were too busy for me to defend myself.
Fixing the flat seemed to take forever.

- Frank Krygowski

On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 5:02:03 PM UTC-4, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

I like a decent pump a lot better. My favourite pumps are the Zefal HP or Zefal HPX.

I agree. And I had some luck with my HPX the other day. I hadn't used it for a long time, so
grabbed it instead of my floor pump to inflate my tires.

Well! I couldn't get it to switch from "X" mode (for clipping into my bike frame) to "HP" mode
(for actually inflating the tire). It took several shots of lubricant into the fancy 2-way handle,
plus a lot of working things back and forth. And the steel pump shaft was a bit rusty too.
I cleaned and lubricated that plus the leather washer.

I was glad I learned this at home instead of on the road. Moral of the story: Maintain your pump.

- Frank Krygowski

On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 10:53:26 p.m. UTC-4, wrote:
On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 3:06:08 PM UTC-4, AMuzi wrote:
I always ended my flat-tire classes with the note that, 'a
flat is never at a convenient time, often associated with
rain, heat, cold, mosquitoes or just running late to be
somewhere else...

We could probably do a thread on worst flat tire situations.

Mine was in Acadia National Park, at dusk, on a long marshy path that was a short cut from our
campsite to some road or other. The flat was the rear of the tandem. My wife and kid were
free to swat at the million mosquitoes, but my hands were too busy for me to defend myself.
Fixing the flat seemed to take forever.

- Frank Krygowski

That's when I really like having a spare tube and/or a spare tubular tire with my clincher bike. The tubular will get me home and it's on in seconds.

Yes, I realize that prolonged riding on a tubular mounted on a clincher rim might result in deterioration of the sidewall where the rim contacts it. However, it's a very fast fix.

Cheers

On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 7:53:26 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 3:06:08 PM UTC-4, AMuzi wrote:
I always ended my flat-tire classes with the note that, 'a
flat is never at a convenient time, often associated with
rain, heat, cold, mosquitoes or just running late to be
somewhere else...

We could probably do a thread on worst flat tire situations.

Mine was in Acadia National Park, at dusk, on a long marshy path that was a short cut from our
campsite to some road or other. The flat was the rear of the tandem. My wife and kid were
free to swat at the million mosquitoes, but my hands were too busy for me to defend myself.
Fixing the flat seemed to take forever.

I've had that situation, too, and oddly it was in the PNW -- near Mt. St. Helens -- which is not renown for mosquitos. I flatted in some swampy area and got eaten alive fixing a flat.

My worst flat experience was five or six on a relatively short ride around SMS territory -- the Stevens Creek Reservoir and the hills around there. I had worn through a rear tire on my touring bike, and before this ride I'd thrown on my spare Michelin 50 -- a tire I had bought while riding up the Ca. coast but never used. The bead diameter was way off, and I got a succession of pinch flats. I blew through two tubes and all the patches in my patch kit. When I got home, I threw the tire away and put on one of the wobbly-tread Turbo tires I had gotten from friends working at Specialized. Mike S. prohibited them from selling the reject tires, but they did. I think I paid $1-2 for first generation Turbos, which required Olympic thumb strength for installation.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 7:53:26 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 3:06:08 PM UTC-4, AMuzi wrote:
I always ended my flat-tire classes with the note that, 'a
flat is never at a convenient time, often associated with
rain, heat, cold, mosquitoes or just running late to be
somewhere else...

We could probably do a thread on worst flat tire situations.

Mine was in Acadia National Park, at dusk, on a long marshy path that was a short cut from our
campsite to some road or other. The flat was the rear of the tandem. My wife and kid were
free to swat at the million mosquitoes, but my hands were too busy for me to defend myself.
Fixing the flat seemed to take forever.

Back when there were still real salt marshes here and the fresh water swamps around the steel mills, mosquitoes used to be quite a problem along with swarms of flies. Now we have wasps and I have to cut down their nests in the winter. They never rebuild in the same location here.

On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 7:58:56 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 5:02:03 PM UTC-4, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

I like a decent pump a lot better. My favourite pumps are the Zefal HP or Zefal HPX.
I agree. And I had some luck with my HPX the other day. I hadn't used it for a long time, so
grabbed it instead of my floor pump to inflate my tires.

Well! I couldn't get it to switch from "X" mode (for clipping into my bike frame) to "HP" mode
(for actually inflating the tire). It took several shots of lubricant into the fancy 2-way handle,
plus a lot of working things back and forth. And the steel pump shaft was a bit rusty too.
I cleaned and lubricated that plus the leather washer.

I was glad I learned this at home instead of on the road. Moral of the story: Maintain your pump.

- Frank Krygowski
Silca is coming back to life and perhaps they will use their own pump technology to build full sized frame pumps if enough people write them about it.

On 5/17/2021 7:40 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 7:53:26 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 3:06:08 PM UTC-4, AMuzi wrote:
I always ended my flat-tire classes with the note that, 'a
flat is never at a convenient time, often associated with
rain, heat, cold, mosquitoes or just running late to be
somewhere else...

We could probably do a thread on worst flat tire situations.

Mine was in Acadia National Park, at dusk, on a long marshy path that was a short cut from our
campsite to some road or other. The flat was the rear of the tandem. My wife and kid were
free to swat at the million mosquitoes, but my hands were too busy for me to defend myself.
Fixing the flat seemed to take forever.

I've had that situation, too, and oddly it was in the PNW -- near Mt. St. Helens -- which is not renown for mosquitos. I flatted in some swampy area and got eaten alive fixing a flat.

My worst flat experience was five or six on a relatively short ride around SMS territory -- the Stevens Creek Reservoir and the hills around there. I had worn through a rear tire on my touring bike, and before this ride I'd thrown on my spare Michelin 50 -- a tire I had bought while riding up the Ca. coast but never used. The bead diameter was way off, and I got a succession of pinch flats. I blew through two tubes and all the patches in my patch kit. When I got home, I threw the tire away and put on one of the wobbly-tread Turbo tires I had gotten from friends working at Specialized. Mike S. prohibited them from selling the reject tires, but they did. I think I paid $1-2 for first generation Turbos, which required Olympic thumb strength for installation.

I got a flat on I-80 in the Sierras, on the short stretch where bicycles
are allowed because there is no alternate route. It was unpleasant to be
on the shoulder fixing a flat while vehicles whizzed by at high speeds.