Getting ready

As I mentioned a little while ago, I've got a sprint tri coming up next weekend. I've done another race at this same location a few years ago, and that time I had to borrow my brother's old full suspension MTB to ride. The worst part (other than the fact that I don't like suspension to begin with) is that he hadn't used/maintained it for so long that the front fork lock-out wasn't working, so by the end of the bike section I was almost sea-sick from the bouncing every time I tried to really push on a climb. This time I'll be driving to his house instead of flying, so I can bring my own bike.

I thought about it a bit and decided to pull the Raleigh off of the trainer and use it. Sure, it's limited gear-wise (a straight 10, and not for climbing, compared to the 21 on the Trucker) but it weighs less, has no racks, and is easier to pack into my truck. I also decided to swap the pedals out. When I first bought it the Raleigh had what looked like original toe clip pedals on it and I pulled them off for clipless. In this case I want the toe clip so I can just wear my running shoes. Since I'm not going for speed the slight benefit of the clipless shoes is more than balanced by only having to put my shoes on once (I'm VERY slow at transitions.)


The only downside is that while I was pulling the non-driveside pedal off I wanged my thumb good - pinched it between the wrench and the crank. Darn thing is still tender. Oh, and the fact that the spare tube from the seat bag had spider webs on it.

Goop

I've been meaning to test out Green Slime for a while. Not because I just like the idea, but because I keep getting slow leaks in the rear tire on my commuter bike. Since it has an internal-geared hub, getting the wheel off and on is a bit of an issue, and then I have to make sure the chain is tight and occasionally readjust the cable tension to keep it in the right gear. Add to that the fact that just flipping the thing upside down to get the wheel off is a significant challenge due to weight, and you'll see why tire changing/patching is low on my list.

(Keep in mind, I do have liners in the tires, but I think the spoke ends may be poking through the rim tape and causing little tiny holes.)

The last time I flatted, a few weeks ago, I just stuck my tongue out and left it flat. Last weekend I picked up a tube of slime and went to work. The bottle has pretty clear directions on it, and I went by them. I won't repeat them (rote) here, but roughly:

• Let the air out and then pull the valve core (the top of the bottle has a built-in removal tool).
• Use the hose to pump slime into the tube, about 1/2 the bottle for a bike tire
• Replace the valve core and inflate.
• Roll the tube to distribute the slime and remount.

That was the basic chain of events I followed, and it was almost that easy. The biggest issue I ran into is that the goop is thick. It took a lot of squeezing on the bottle to get it moving. Another thing to be aware of:

DO NOT REMOVE THE BOTTLE FROM THE HOSE, OR THE HOSE FROM THE VALVE STEM UNTIL THE HOSE IS EMPTY!!!

I cannot stress this enough. If you do (like I did) the pressure in the tube will pump all of the goop back out and it will go everywhere and be a pain to clean up. I had the advantage of having a utility room that I could work in and worry about cleaning up later, but had I been in my old apartment I would have been in trouble.

So far the slime is holding. I've done a few rides of varying length, and haven't had the slow leak problem again. If it holds I may go ahead and slime all of my bikes, just in case.

Grumble...

There is a gremlin haunting my commuter bike, the Schwinn. I've already written on my problems with the rear tire, and it has once again attacked me. This time I know it was a gremlin.

I rode Monday and Tuesday of last week because my truck was in the shop. Tuesday afternoon I got off BART a few stops early to pick up the truck, then drove to the Concord station to pick up the bike. Both days the ride was fine. When I got to BART the bike was fine. When I unloaded the bike from the truck at my house the back tire was soft, and by Wednesday evening it was flat.

I'm taking the lazy way out, and trying the "pretend there's no problem" option of just pumping the tire back up without actually doing anything. My hope is that there was something in the way I loaded the bike into the truck that caused the tire to flat, but I'm not expecting to get that lucky. Thankfully work takes me out of town on Monday so I couldn't ride anyway and that will give me Monday afternoon to take it apart and try to find the problem...

Slow leaks

I can't think of any aspect of bike maintenance that drives me farther up the wall than slow leaks in tubes. Especially with my Speedster. Why that bike in particular?

• No quick release - The rear (internal gear) can't be and the front just isn't, and for commuting that's just fine (it buys me an extra 0.5 seconds) but for replacing tubes it's a pain
• No work stand - The other bikes hang on a rack and I could probably get their (quick release) tires off on there, not the Schwinn because...
• It weighs a lot - This is an old school steel tank, which I love, but the lean-against-the-wall style rack my other bikes are on wouldn't hold it
• Full metal fenders with attached taillight - This makes it tough to just wheelie the bike up and over on the rear wheel, I get about 1/2 way and hit the fender
• Odd tire size - When I had new wheels built I did the cool but not smart thing and kept the original S6 wheels, which makes getting new tires and tubes a pain (that will change soon)
• Tires that don't sit easily - I don't know if it's S6 in general or just the tires I have, but they do not sit well on the rim so pinch flats are a constant source of worry

That's the beginning of the list, but you get the point.

For the last week I've been commuting on the Trucker because the Schwinn is flat in the back. I pulled it off this weekend, couldn't find a hole, put the tube back on and a few hours later (3 or 4) it was going flat again. In the end I will probably pull the tube and replace it, tagging it as leaking and fix it later (when I have access to my dad's fountain to find the leak). I think I'm also going to get new rim tape because the old stuff looks pretty shot, and some of the add-it-yourself anti-flat goop.