She's a real left winger 'cause she been down south

[venta]

Hurrah. Go me. For the first time that I remember, I've just managed to change an inner tube on the back wheel of my bike without assistance.

I mean, I know how to do it - but there's always been a bit where I've just lacked the brute force to carry it out by myself. Usually either getting the tyre back on the wheel, or getting the wheel back on the bike.

I've been taking the back wheel on and off a lot recently (the chain keeps falling off and wedging itself inconveniently between the cassette and the fork), so I've got the hang of that now. It turns out violence actually is the answer. And the tyre went back onto the rim with only a minimum of angry tussling. I suspect this means my tyre is getting old and floppy and will probably soon have to be replaced :(

But in the meantime: hurrah!

Next stop: work out why the damn chain keeps falling off. Which probably requires me to understand the adjustment of derailleur gears.

Also, note to self: do not buy inner tubes with Schrader valves. Actually, I didn't buy these. A colleague gave me a box of ten he'd found in his loft, since he no longer had a bike with wheels of the relevant diameter. Which was kind of him, and saved me a bunch of money. However! Unlike what I choose to call proper valves, there is no retaining nut of any kind to hold a Schrader valve in place.

So... when you arrive to find your tyre is very flat, and decide to pump it up enough to get you to your office, you take your little foldy push-fit pump out of your bag...

... and push the valve inside the tyre. Bring back old-skool bike pumps with screw fittings, I say, instead of these modern-fangled ones. After extensive practising, I reckon you need one hand to hold the valve in place, one hand to fit the pump, and one hand to flip the lever that clamps the pump in place.

Since I only appear to have two hands, I think I'll stick to Presta.

Comments

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Well done! You may be a brute but you're a skilful brute.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

And relating to a comment of yours on your own journal earlier... a (male) colleague of mine did sit and chat to me throughout and, even when I was struggling a bit, didn't muscle in. I know from long experience that he's extremely willing to help out if asked, but he did sit back and let me get on with it.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Brute force FTW! :-D

Which probably requires me to understand the adjustment of derailleur gears.

That particular task proved to be the limit of by own cycle maintenance skills. Or rather, slightly beyond the limit. :-(

Technically I did adjust my derailleur, but the result was more surprising than helpful.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I do intend to prioritise the understanding over the adjustment.

Whether that works out remains to be seen ;)

[hirez.livejournal.com]

(The late) Sheldon Brown.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

You could pop a mole wrench round the valve to stop it disappearing into the hole when you push the pump on, maybe.

I found a solution to putting tyres back on and now I can't remember what it was. I think it was to have several sets of tyre levers and use two in each hand or something. Doing it indoors definitely helped over doing it outside in the winter.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Mole wrench would work - or a small, plastic clamp thingy which would be lighter to carry around.

I was changing tyres outside, but in reasonably nice weather. It is now chucking it down - the weather politely waited for me to finish and get indoors. This is in itself suspicious and probably means that some form of catastrophic weather misfortune is going to befall me later in the week.

[pm215]

Huh. I thought Presta and Schrader valves had different diameters such that you had to use the one that was the correct size for the hole in your wheel rim...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

There is a third kind of valve, the Dunlop, which is the same diameter as the Schrader but which fits a Presta pump. And I guess is often elided with Presta for casual purposes?

[pm215]

IME Dunlop/Woods valves are almost nonexistent for actual bikes here. I had a rental bike in Japan once with Woods valves and they were a complete pain in the neck. They also have a comedy user-error mode where you can take the middle of the valve out completely resulting in the sudden total deflation of the tyre you were hoping to pump up a little...

[venta.livejournal.com]

The valves are certainly different diameters; the Schrader valves are rather wider-bore. I hadn't really thought about it, and assumed they were interchangeable.

Certainly the front wheel is the one which originally came with the bike, and came with a Presta valve on it. The back wheel was replaced relatively recently, and I guess the shop that replaced it put the same tyre and (Presta) tube back on after replacement. I then put a Schrader tube on the back wheel without problems...

[pm215]

It looks like Schwalbe's schraeder-valve inner tubes come with the threaded retaining nut thingy, incidentally, as do Continentals, in case you have a preference for the valve in some other respect.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Prehensile toes.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'd rather a prehensile tail...

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

How about a prehensile nose?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's really a good look unless you're an elephant.

(I'm not.)

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Tapirs! and star-nosed moles, though I'm not sure if those are properly prehensile or just sensory.

Anyway, trunks are in front of you, whereas tails are good for holding things you're balancing from, but no good for manipulation of things you're looking at.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Star-nosed moles? I refer you to my remarks about a good look :) I'll give you tapirs (though I've no idea where you're going to keep them).

I'm sure if I tried to hold a bicycle pump in place with my nose I'd end up really quite cross-eyed. I'm still holding out for a tail. A nice, long tail so I can reach round with it. And swish it when angry.