I have a commuter bike. These are knobbier tires than the smoother ones I had on.

I also added in 'tuffy' strips between the tire and inner tube for more protection. I had a "beer bottle" thorn stuck my tire this summer I discovered after inner tubes kept slowly deflating on me.

So far it looks like everything went back together ok. Tires still spin (needs truing). Brakes still work.

Since someone mentioned it on here before, I wiped down the underside of the bike while I had it flipped over. Wiped down, or just smeared gunk around. Water and paper towels. (Is there anything better to use? I hesitated with any kind of soap or Lysol in case would eat away something.) I did notice the spots on my spoke nipple where I used grease, that those little greased areas had collected some grime.

Kills my fingers though. Wiping down stuff was a break from the tire work.

I'm also damning my local bike shop more (and myself for throwing out the original rear wheel but I didn't know any better then, and it was taking up space and appeared to be trash). I squeezed spokes on the front and back just to check. I noticed the rear wheel seemed a little wider and my suspicion was confirmed. I counted spokes. 36 on the front, original wheel. Only 32 on the back. That was the "upgraded" wheel. When I got it I told my bike shop I wanted a stronger wheel since I carry around some weight. The wheel is stronger, but it's only 32 spokes instead of 36. I bet the original wheel was 36 though.


Other updates:
Bike chain is still holding up. Replacing the chain, cassette, and crankset is still a future project. Although if the chain break, that might be a rush fix or I might give up and take it to another bike shop I found. Have them replace all that. I did pick up a Bell chain link pusher tool just to have on hand. If the chain really did split apart, possibly I could fix it immediately with that.

A new 36 spoke rear wheel is still a future project. Truing stand, new wheel, all that.

Knee-wise, I'm pretty sure I have the standard weak knees, weak hips. Running exaggerates that. Running and biking exaggerates it more, if they pull on the knee cap differently. Strengthening the legs, feet, and hips seems to work best. Doing squats with weights really seems to reset things -- I think it stretches muscles in the top part of the leg. Essentially, the knee pain I had before is gone. I was able to push running distance more. I'm sure something will break in the future again (that's the pattern), but when I figure it out, it's stronger (and a known, recoverable issue).


Except for a bit of a concern that my bike could break and I'd be stuck, stopping thinking about it lessens stress associated with it. I was thinking though if things broke, I could have a shop do the repairs. I really want to do them myself to save money. But I'm also spending a lot of time thinking and worrying about it. On the plus side, for changing out my tires, I like the control element of that. Last year I discovered knobbier tires actually do make a different when driving on snow and ice, so when I ended up having a smooth set of tires and a knobbier set, I decided to try them as "snow tires" this winter. If there was a person, possibly I could pay them, to have them teach me to do exactly what I want on my bike to speed things up. That money spent on the person could be made up for by not accidentally buying the wrong part. Buy their knowledge, as much as I need to get my job done. Then I'm independent that way. Maybe a little catalyst to speed things up a bit.

Phew... I thought this got removed.

Could I get this moved over here please? This looks like a better match for subforum.
Winter Cycling



??? Why doesn't this post or my reply appear in my search results? Is the search not working or am I shadowed banned on here or something....?

Search just generally sucks in general. I see your thread is in Winter Cycling now, though there's a lot more traffic in the commuting forum.

I've never gotten a flat in the winter. Seems to be less likely to be able to wedge something sharp hard enough between pavement and your tire to puncture it when everything is covered with snow which it can push into. (Spring is the worst, when the snow and ice melt and sharp stuff is left sitting on hard pavement.) I do put flat resistant tires on my winter bike anyways, but I'd personally be hesitant about putting tire liners on. Tire liners have a reputation for occasionally being installed wrong and puncturing the tube themselves by rubbing the edge of the liner into the tube. Just my 2 cents.

Your profile doesn't say where you live. Knobby tires help with snow (they help but certainly don't make it easy). Studded tires grip on ice, where knobby tires don't make much of a difference. I created a thread on winter tires here you might be interested in:
https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...fat-bikes.html

If there's any ice, I personally will not ride without studs. It's to dangerous for me, for a problem I could solve for $100-$200. Some people claim that they're "fine", but rubber doesn't grip on ice, and the people I've known to try it always seem to eventually have a bad fall. (Studs still leave snow slippery, but grap onto sheer ice like it's 80% pavement in my opinion).