Originally Posted by
madpogue
Yeah, screw the bolt back in, so you have something to hit to knock the wedge loose.
Trainers wear out tires quickly, but these ones are probably pretty dry anyway (looks can be deceiving), so when the rear wears out, rather than putting on a new tire, put the front tire on the rear. Then buy a pair of tires, but put a new tire on the front only, By the time _that_ rear tire wears out, the new-ish front tire will have very little wear (just the repeated 2-mile round trip). That will be the best way to use up whatever useful life those tires have.
Oh, good idea! Yes, these are on the dry side and obviously old, but, not as cracked or anything as I would have expected, and the guy at the bike shop agreed from the brief look he took. I'll be keeping a close eye on them-- obviously I don't want to take a spill on the street if they give out, on the trainer not such a big deal.
Originally Posted by
madpogue
YOption - if you have a bike co-op in your area, find another cheap rear wheel with a freewheel, and keep it at your friend's house. Buy two new tires for these wheels, and put one of these old tires on the other wheel, to use on the trainer. You'll still have one more trainer tire to wear out as well
Lack of wanting to take the rear wheel on and off constantly is why I got a dedicated trainer bike to begin with, rather than just a trainer tire for my regular bike.
(I don't want to wear out the tires on my regular bike unevenly, nor to keep taking the wheel on/off for a trainer-tire wheel. If I had to do that, I would just never use the trainer. Way too much hassle. This is my compromise, as suggested by another friend.)
Originally Posted by
madpogue
Is your mention of black a reference to repainting the whole frame? That would not look good. And you wouldn't want to lose the branding just on account of some nicks and scratches. You can experiment with mixing Testors paints, literally a droplet on a toothpick at a time, to get the right shade of blue.
No, no. I meant the bar tape. I will not be painting the bike. 1. I like the color and don't care about the nicks (on a car, yes, this would be a concern as they'd be constantly exposed to the elements and would rust, but on a bike, no such worries, and I don't care about the merely-cosmetic), and 2. even if I hated the color, I wouldn't care enough to paint it. I was just saying that while I'd love to have bar tape in blue to match the bike, I'm going to go super-cheap with the tape so will probably end up with black.