We’ve been languishing in Arçais for a few days catching up with our friend that we last saw at a remembrance gathering for her husband last year. We’ve had a good time catching up.
I’ve also had to catch up with a hangover from last year’s trip to Spain when, for what seem like complex reasons, I’d ended up with the wrong inner tube in my bike’s front wheel. It’s wrong on two counts. Firstly, the valve is wrong – it’s one of those horrible Presta (high pressure) valves instead of a car-type Schrader valve (unavailable in Spain for my size of wheel). Secondly, the tube is narrower than the tyre really requires but it seems to expand to fill the tyre well enough. Oh, my incorrect inner tube is supposedly also one filled with goo designed to plug small punctures.
My bike hasn’t been used much over winter but the Marais Poitevin is decidedly cycling country so we’ve been out pedalling.
This morning I clambered back on my trusty steed to discover a flat front tyre. “Bother”, said Pooh, politely. I spun about, returned to the welcoming back-end of Frodo and dug out my puncture repair stuff. I removed the front wheel from an upended bike and set about removing both tyre and inner tube.
‘T was a messy business; the tyre casing was filled with lurid green goo which had leaked out of the punctured tube. Naturally, the outside of the tube itself was also covered in green goo. It seems that the goo had failed to plug what looked like a pretty small pin-prick of a puncture. What it did do was act as a great indicator of where the puncture actually was – spot the bubble of green goo.
I cleaned up the inside of the tyre and the outside of the tube, though I was concerned that remnants of the goo might stop a patch adhering to the tube. Nonetheless I had no option but for go for it.
It did seem to work but I had another concern: being technically too narrow for the tyre, the tube would have to expand considerably to take up the slack. I wondered if the rubber patch could cope with such expansion and remain fixed.
The proof of the pudding was in the riding and we went back out for another pedal. With not a little relief, both I and the bike seemed to survive.
When we get back home I really must get the correct inner tube for my front wheel, both valve type and thickness, along with a spare or two. I’m also considering getting different tyres since the ones I have are a “sloppy” fit to the rims – no tyre levers needed. Once deflated they more or less fall off the rim and tend to blow off in random places around the rim while you are trying to inflate them.
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