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09-20-08, 08:48 AM
I know it's not Halloween yet, but here's a bit of a spooky story... :eek:
A few days ago I put my bike in the back of my car to take it to the office, so that I could ride it around the nice, quiet office park area after I got off work. When I came out to the parking lot that evening, I discovered that the back tire of the bike was flat. Not only that, but a good portion of the tire on the drive side directly opposite the valve stem was off the rim. It looked as though someone already had begun trying to remove the tire and fix the flat.
I figured that unless some local elves had decided to leave shoe-making and take up bicycle repair, it must have been a blowout rather than a simple flat. Sure enough, when I got home and took the bike out of the car, I found several shreds of rubber lying around in the back. There was at least a six-inch split in the tube where the tire was off the rim. My tires (Panaracer Pasela TourGuards) had been on the bike for two or three months and had never given me any trouble, so the only explanation I could find was that being in a closed car in the sun all day had heated the tires and caused the pressure to rise high enough to blow the tire off the straight-walled rim. I normally keep my rear tire at a higher pressure than the front, which could explain why the front tire did not blow off also.
When I put the Paselas on the wheels I had replaced the tubes too (with cheap Bell tubes), and kept the old tires and tubes as spares. So I took the back wheel in the house, removed what was left of the tube, and put one of the old tubes in. I noticed that it seemed harder than I remembered to get the bead seated next to the valve stem. Then I inflated the tire in several stages, checking at each stage that there was no sign of the tire unseating or the tube slipping under the bead. Everything was fine right up the point where I stopped at 95 psi and was about to remove the pump. Just before I reached for the wheel I saw the tire start peeling away from the rim next to the valve stem and a section of tube ballooning out from under the bead. Then BAM! and my ears were ringing.
This time there was about a three-inch split in the tube, 180 degrees across the wheel from the original blowout. I couldn't find anything wrong with the tire, so I removed the tube and compared it to the other blown-out tube. The valve areas of both tubes were reinforced with thicker rubber, but it was much thicker and more stiff on the old tube than on the new Bell tube. I remembered how hard it had been to seat the bead next to the valve stem. Apparently the old tubes, with worked fine with the old tires, weren't flexible enough around the valve stem to allow the Paselas to seat properly. So I went to the store and got another Bell tube, mounted it in the tire, cautiously inflated it to the maximum pressure, and everything was fine. I've been riding on it for several days now, and topping it off before each ride to keep it at full pressure, with no further problems.
So where does the cursed valve cap come into the story? Well, I have an old car sitting in my driveway that I really ought to sell. It developed a number of problems over the last few years. I had to replace the engine computer, and a fuel rail, and the fuel pump, and have the transmission rebuilt, and the odometer quit working, and a lot of other little things. It seemed every month something new happened. When the brakes started acting up, I decided to park it and haven't driven it since.
Well, a few days ago, before my usual morning bike ride, I found that one of my valve caps was missing. Obviously I had forgotten to put it back on after checking the tire pressure the previous day. No problem; when I got home I opened the trunk of my old car and removed the valve cap from the spare tire. (That spare was flat, because shortly before I stopped driving that car I'd had a blowout and had never bothered replacing the tire.) Then I put the valve cap on my bike tire. It was later that same day that the same tire blew out while the bike was sitting in the back of my other car.
So here's what I think: I think my old car is under a curse, which is why it broke down so frequently. Clearly its valve cap carried the curse to my bike and cost me two tubes in the same day. So now my bike has a new tube and a new valve cap that came with it, and the old valve cap is safely back on the spare in the trunk of the old car. Incidentally, two of the other tires on that car have gone flat during the months it's been sitting in the driveway...
So happy early Halloween, everyone. :D
A few days ago I put my bike in the back of my car to take it to the office, so that I could ride it around the nice, quiet office park area after I got off work. When I came out to the parking lot that evening, I discovered that the back tire of the bike was flat. Not only that, but a good portion of the tire on the drive side directly opposite the valve stem was off the rim. It looked as though someone already had begun trying to remove the tire and fix the flat.
I figured that unless some local elves had decided to leave shoe-making and take up bicycle repair, it must have been a blowout rather than a simple flat. Sure enough, when I got home and took the bike out of the car, I found several shreds of rubber lying around in the back. There was at least a six-inch split in the tube where the tire was off the rim. My tires (Panaracer Pasela TourGuards) had been on the bike for two or three months and had never given me any trouble, so the only explanation I could find was that being in a closed car in the sun all day had heated the tires and caused the pressure to rise high enough to blow the tire off the straight-walled rim. I normally keep my rear tire at a higher pressure than the front, which could explain why the front tire did not blow off also.
When I put the Paselas on the wheels I had replaced the tubes too (with cheap Bell tubes), and kept the old tires and tubes as spares. So I took the back wheel in the house, removed what was left of the tube, and put one of the old tubes in. I noticed that it seemed harder than I remembered to get the bead seated next to the valve stem. Then I inflated the tire in several stages, checking at each stage that there was no sign of the tire unseating or the tube slipping under the bead. Everything was fine right up the point where I stopped at 95 psi and was about to remove the pump. Just before I reached for the wheel I saw the tire start peeling away from the rim next to the valve stem and a section of tube ballooning out from under the bead. Then BAM! and my ears were ringing.
This time there was about a three-inch split in the tube, 180 degrees across the wheel from the original blowout. I couldn't find anything wrong with the tire, so I removed the tube and compared it to the other blown-out tube. The valve areas of both tubes were reinforced with thicker rubber, but it was much thicker and more stiff on the old tube than on the new Bell tube. I remembered how hard it had been to seat the bead next to the valve stem. Apparently the old tubes, with worked fine with the old tires, weren't flexible enough around the valve stem to allow the Paselas to seat properly. So I went to the store and got another Bell tube, mounted it in the tire, cautiously inflated it to the maximum pressure, and everything was fine. I've been riding on it for several days now, and topping it off before each ride to keep it at full pressure, with no further problems.
So where does the cursed valve cap come into the story? Well, I have an old car sitting in my driveway that I really ought to sell. It developed a number of problems over the last few years. I had to replace the engine computer, and a fuel rail, and the fuel pump, and have the transmission rebuilt, and the odometer quit working, and a lot of other little things. It seemed every month something new happened. When the brakes started acting up, I decided to park it and haven't driven it since.
Well, a few days ago, before my usual morning bike ride, I found that one of my valve caps was missing. Obviously I had forgotten to put it back on after checking the tire pressure the previous day. No problem; when I got home I opened the trunk of my old car and removed the valve cap from the spare tire. (That spare was flat, because shortly before I stopped driving that car I'd had a blowout and had never bothered replacing the tire.) Then I put the valve cap on my bike tire. It was later that same day that the same tire blew out while the bike was sitting in the back of my other car.
So here's what I think: I think my old car is under a curse, which is why it broke down so frequently. Clearly its valve cap carried the curse to my bike and cost me two tubes in the same day. So now my bike has a new tube and a new valve cap that came with it, and the old valve cap is safely back on the spare in the trunk of the old car. Incidentally, two of the other tires on that car have gone flat during the months it's been sitting in the driveway...
So happy early Halloween, everyone. :D