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.