We haven't done much the past few weeks. On a Saturday about two weeks ago we did go for a short 10 mile ride along a route we hadn't tried before. But when it's 85 degrees in the morning and the sun's not even up, it's hard to get enthused about going on a long ride (since it would be well over a 100 degrees by the time we got home).
A couple nights ago, I was getting the tires on the bike and trike pumped up in anticipation of going out the next morning. However, I had problems, again, with our tire pump. It is from Performance and has always caused me grief with the Presta values. For whatever reason, it is hard to get on and sealed, and once on and with the tires pumped up, even flipping the handle on the stem end of the pump hose doesn't release the pressure in the pump value. As a result, it won't let go of the stem on one of the tires on my wife's bike! In trying to pull it off the stem, the pump end ripped the guts out of the value on the tube. Obviously the tire went flat immediately and the tube was at that point useless. (I had a similar problem with my hand pump, also from Performance, when using it on my daughter's bike in the Tour for Tucson's Children and ripped the guts out of the Presta value there as well.) The pictures show the stemp after the fact and the end of the pump value (red arrow points to the Presta value opening). I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, the pump is just defective, or the Presta value is just really fragile.
I plan on drilling out the wheel rims on my trike so that they will take Schrader values. But I don't know if I can do that with my wife's wheels (since they are so much thinner than the ones on the trike).
1 comment:
Phil I wish I could help you but I can't. I do have a a favor to ask. The ventures and varsity scouts are wanting to do the Indian Bend Wash trail in Dec. Would you be so kind to be the leaders of the pack?
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