Bloody Bike!

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-08-21 10:42am

I've only just got home from work after a nice 8 hour shift, I only took a good hour to walk home instead of 15 minutes as usual because my fucking bike's rear tyre exploded two seconds outside the factory grounds!

It was windy, I was tired, hungry, thirsty, walking down the side of a road with a fucked bike and still in a uniform with more shit on it than the road had. I got home and through the bike into the garden, the tyre is now totally fucked as is the wheel and my older bike has a puncture that refuses to be seen. Not only that, a SUV with an annoyingly loud family in stopped by to ask me directions to the Leisure Lakes! Gits.

It is NOT a good day.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-08-21 11:14am

I had to walk home after my pedal broke off, needless to say it wasn't as bad, but still. * crack!

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-08-21 11:30am

A trick to find the puncture in your tire,fill a bucket with water inflat the tire then look for air bubbles coming out..

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-08-21 11:34am

Is it a motorbike or manually powered one?
I don't suppose it matters, but it would pull the story together nicely, you would garner much more sympathy having to push a 150lb motorbike than a 20 lb. huffy.
things like that always happen at the times you MOST don't want them to, but you have to look at the positve (WHAT positive?! You may ask. Well, I'll tell you. Now you have a neat story to tell to your friends on the SD.net BBS!)

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-08-21 11:38am

It was a push bike, though my bag and coat didn't make it any easier on the weight side of things.

Montcalm: Tried that trick as the first thing for a puncture, it does not seem to exist until the tyre is on the bike.

Post by **Colonel Olrik** » 2003-08-21 11:59am

You should always carry a spare. It's not that cumbersome. Alternatively, buy a quick repair kit (it is very small, and you don't have to apply glue, etc. Just put the patch).

On the preventive side, there is the Magikseal spray, that works quite well even with medium sized punctures. It is specially rewarding with small invisible punctures. Just fill your tire with it before you get a puncture.

To fill the tire, if you don't want to carry around a minipump just buy a set of CO2 bottles, and always carry one. They fit everywhere.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-08-21 12:07pm

The tyre literally exploded off the wheel. A spare would've been nice but I don't have the need to carry one nor the space for it and since the distance is around 5 klicks to work, it doesn't seem worth it.

Post by **Colonel Olrik** » 2003-08-21 12:13pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:The tyre literally exploded off the wheel..

Ouch. I didn't get it. nothing to do then. Although, with a spare and the blowned one, you could improvise a strong enough tire, if it's only to do a few Km in the road. I've done it. It depends of the state of the wheel, of course.

A spare would've been nice but I don't have the need to carry one nor the space for it and since the distance is around 5 klicks to work, it doesn't seem worth it.

Buy magikseal, then. A bottle will last you forever, and will save you from walking home more often than not (you'll need a very serious puncture for it not to work, a friend of mine once told me he had 42 punctures in the same tire when he eventually changed it, I have no reason to doubt him). The quick repair kit + CO2 bottle are very handy, though. Of course, it wouldn't save you from this situation. Only a spare possibly could.

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2003-08-21 12:15pm

Whatever you get, don't use one of the self-resealing tubes. I thought it was cool untill it exploded and sprayed me and my bike with a strange jizz-like substance.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-08-21 12:20pm

I was pissed off enough to try riding home with one good tyre and one grinding metal on the pavement, but I'd have annoyed a lot of people that way and pissed my dad off more (it was his bike).

Anyone heard of those tyres made of a special foam like substance to simulate a pneumatic one but were, for all intents and purposes, indestructible?

Post by **Colonel Olrik** » 2003-08-21 12:27pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I was pissed off enough to try riding home with one good tyre and one grinding metal on the pavement, but I'd have annoyed a lot of people that way and pissed my dad off more (it was his bike).

It wouldn't have worked. Trust me

Anyone heard of those tyres made of a special foam like substance to simulate a pneumatic one but were, for all intents and purposes, indestructible?

That seems like one of those stupid inventions some company describes as the new evolution step, and it ends up in nothing. No bike tire is indestructible, and you're not interested in spending a fortune in a nonfunction product. But don't worry. A good tire will only cost you about 20€, and will last years for sure unless you face a catastrophic event.