Yesterday, Friday, I checked my trike's right front tire and rolled the trike out to the front of the garage so I could have better sunlight with which to take the tube out and find the slow leak that's been bothering me the last several days. The tire would be just soft enough to MAYBE get through a successful few miles, so I aired it up daily for several days; each day noticing it being low again.
Thus I decided to find and fix the problem once and for all. As I fiddled the trike around I was surprised to see the REAR tire absolutely FLAT. The right front tire was still inflated, though as usual a bit soft. I carry a new tube as a spare in my ditty bag on the trike, so I was well prepared to just put a new tube into the tire, since new tubes offer more confidence that no sudden leaks should occur (after checking the tire for sharp stuff that originally punctured the tube).
Removing tubes from the rear tire is more complex than on the front, since the rear wheel is bracketed on both sides AND has the drive cassette attached to the axle.
When I finally got grease all over myself and the wheel removed, I couldn't immediately see any puncture hole in the tube. I over-inflated it and spun it around my head, expecting to feel the usual hiss of escaping air on my aged yet sensitive cheek. No such luck. Filling a 5 gallon bucket with water and dipping the tube in that soon exposed the leak.... a super tiny pin-hole. Rubbing the inside of the offending tire revealed the cyclist's bane: A tiny wire, the source of which usually is shrapnel from shredded truck tires along the highways and streets. Such shredded tires get flung or pushed off to the shoulder of the roads, which is where we hapless cyclists must normally ride.
I usually purchase my 20 X 1.25-1.50 Presta-valve tubes from Amazon, but that takes several days, and I didn't want to miss riding for such a delay while waiting for delivery. SO, methinks, I should try a local bike-parts source. Unfortunately, in this small burg where few cyclists thrive, that leaves only Walmart, which has several sizes of bike tubes and tires.... but no Prestas and of course nothing in the exact size I needed. Googling for "local bike shops" revealed a shop we had never noticed nor seen, and after driving to Walmart for the wasted search, we wasted another half hour or so driving to the Google-spotted so-called local bike shop. Of course there was no such thing at the stated address; only an auto repair shop. It would be nice if Google could keep up with such disappearances, especially since it's been more than a year since such a bike shop could have existed here. Ah Well.
By now it was getting late in the day and I still wanted to get at least temporary tires up and running so I wouldn't be "grounded". So I dragged out the little-used patch kit. I had several good patches left in the kit but when I opened the tube of contact cement for the patch.... nothing came out. Totally dry from too much expired time riding around in my little used emergency kit. So now another trip to Walmart to see if they had such a thing as tire-patch-grade contact cement. It took a lot of searching but we finally found some, even small tubes that fit into my fix-it kit, 4 to a pack.
The slow leak in the right front tire turned out to be the same trouble: Almost invisible tiny hole, no wire found, but obviously caused by a poke from a tiny piece of wire from a truck's shattered radial tire carcass. By the time I got the tires inflated and back on the trike it was almost dark and I was only able to take it for a ride for a few blocks around the back of our house. The patched tires seemed to be holding OK.
Today we drove to Saint Louis for our Ward Temple Day, and it was almost dark by the time we got home to Mountain Grove. After around 24 hours of sitting in the garage, the patched tires seem to be holding. Maybe I can sneak in a ride sometime tomorrow after Church to see if everything is still copacetic.
Ride Started: 5:34 PM Ride Ended: 5:51 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 14.0 Ending Battery Voltage: 13.0 Lowest Voltage: 13.0
Beginning Blood Glucose: 210 Ending BG: 157
Lowest Temp: 61 F Highest Temp: 65 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 1.23
Distance Walked: .6 mile
Overall Average Speed Moving Avg Max Speed
3.9 MPH 7.1 MPH 15.5 MPH
Distance Walked: .6 mile
Overall Average Speed Moving Avg Max Speed
3.9 MPH 7.1 MPH 15.5 MPH
Total Trip Time Moving Time Stopped Time
19 minutes 11 minutes 8 minutes
19 minutes 11 minutes 8 minutes
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