For three days now, the front wheel of my bike has had a flat tyre, though for the middle of those days I hadn’t realised because we were just driving. This sorry episode began as a self inflicted wound caused by me foolishly trying something that really didn’t need trying. [Yes, dad, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”]
Yesterday I discovered what was actually the second problem, related to the first, and had no luck patching things up. TBH, the hole in the inner tube was just too large for my puncture repair kits.
We, or more correctly our new Dutch neighbour friends, had located a bicycle shop in the nearby town of Candeleda, just 11kms away. With good reviews, a visit was definitely required. I prepared Frodo for travel.
Candeleda was, I think, a little larger than our own Madrigal de la Vera. As I expected, finding a parking space for Frodo proved tricky but we found a spot up a side street from the bike shop, leaving us with a bit of a walk. With a disabled bike whose front tyre insists on constantly removing itself from the rim, “a bit of a walk” is “a bit of a challenge” ‘cos you have to carry the wheel off the ground rather than roll it. Thankfully it wasn’t the rear wheel, which is considerably heavier.
Francine held the shop door open while I carried my bike with an airborne front wheel up the steps and in. Happily, the shop was otherwise empty.
Tengo un problema …
… I announced, rather unnecessarily given that it was glaringly obvious, in my limited but perfect Spanish. Still, it’s always good to practice.
The young man swiftly removed the front wheel and dragged the flat innertube out of it. Since bike part 1, I now had mixed valves, one Presta and one original Schrader. I tried to explain that I really would like a new tube with a Schrader valve.
It seems that, in Spain, tubes for my wheel size, 700c, come ONLY with Presta high pressure valves. He disappeared into his store room and returned with another tube. This one was a posh job, filled with gel presumably to self-seal in the event of a puncture. Whether it would self seal in the even of an explosion, I hope I never have to find out.
The tubes have another dimension, this relating to the width or fatness. My old tube was 38/45c (it’s a range, though Darwin knows what the dimension is) and I noticed this replacement was 25/34c. It was clearly intended for a road bike with skinnier tyres. Sr. Bicycle-Repair-Man thought it would be fine.
He proceeded to install it. I was gratified to see that, even in his experienced hands, the tube had a habit of pushing the tyre off the rim as it inflated. I tried to tell him that I thought the tyre seemed a little too large for the rim; “no”, he said, and kept going encouraging the tyre back into the rim if it popped out anywhere.
We bought a second spare innertube, largely for Francine’s bike, just in case. Since one of the base causes of this 3-day saga had been my inability to correctly attach my old emergency pump to a valve, We also bought a new mini-pump, supposedly for both valve types, which I also hoped I wouldn’t have to find out.
The return wander back to Frodo was much simpler, now being able to wheel the bike instead of carry it.
I really should practice with the new emergency pump to learn how it works but I can still hear my father whispering in my ear,
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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