It can’t be THAT hard
Welcome to the first part of an occasional, but no doubt frequent series entitled “It can’t be that hard“, where I try to save money by, instead of going to the bike shop (usually Fanatic), trying to learn to do it myself. It’s not just frugality, I want to demystify the whole thing for myself and others: I am pretty sure a bike is not that complicated a machine!
Along the way, before I end up taking the bits to Fanatic to be put back together again, I will probably discover that it IS “that hard” and probably learn a lesson or two to pass on - a cautionary tale if you will. Also, I expect readers of this blog to contribute by telling me (and others) how it’s actually done! In other words, these are the experiments of a bumbling amateur, and I make no claims as to the accuracy of any instructions you may read or infer here!!
Part 1 - Patching an inner tube
Before I do anything else, I have to patch the inner tube which I punctured the other day on the first test ride of my new bike. I’ve got plenty of spares around, but I am feeling stingy - I would rather have the spares to hand for when I really need them. So I just have to whack a patch over the puncture.
Easy, right?
Wrong!
It just so happens that the puncture was right against the seam, and even two patches couldn’t stop the air escaping in an annoying fashion!
Lessons learned:
1) If the puncture is right up against the seam, it’s probably not worth bothering trying to patch it unless you’re really desperate.
2) don’t be stingy, just change the whole inner tube
3) possibly: it IS perfectly possible to mend this kind of puncture, but I just don’t know how to do it!
Well, until next time (Changing an inner tube, or, Valve type DOES matter!) it just remains for me to say, don’t try this on your own bike kids!
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Posted on February 2nd, 2007 by markowe
Filed under: Bike repair, The Bike!
[...] maybe you caught the first bumbling installment of this series, where I demonstrated that it CAN be that hard patching an inner tube! One additional thing to look [...]