March 23, 2021
Somehow, riding in clipless shoes for the first time was not the only excitement on my first day of training. When I decide I’m going to do something I go in with everything I have. In this case this was literal. I strapped my panniers to my bike, brought a camera a book to read (I had big dreams of getting to Concord and relaxing by Old North Bridge) and even my tire repair kit. I hadn’t even looked at the training regimen I planned to follow but I figured I’d need to get used to the extra weight eventually, so why not now? It had been long enough since my last ride that I couldn’t remember it, so I decided to try the hand pump in my kit while I was still at home. I didn’t give it much time. I tried, felt like I may have let some air out of it accidentally. I was in a bit of a rush. My local coffee shop closes at 2 and I wanted a cup of coffee and something to eat before I got going.
When my tires are just a bit low I often wonder how my leg muscles got so weak so quickly. It always takes me a bit of struggle before I decide I really should put air in my tires more often. I pulled over not far from my coffee shop and tested the wheel. There was some give. There are a few bike repair stations on the Minuteman, but I learned the hard way that the pumps are questionable at best. Last summer I went through the same ordeal. I decided after I’d already started my ride that it would be easier with a little more air in the tire. I used the bike station to pump my tire and wound up with a flat. I had to carry my bike what felt like a mile to meet up with a friend with a bike pump. My muscles recall that day vividly and I refused to make that mistake again. The bike path breaks at Arlington Center. The Kickstand Café had the bike pumps I was used to attached to concrete to prevent theft.
“In a manic state of desperation, I searched Youtube for a tutorial.”
There are plenty of things about biking that I haven’t learned quite yet. Things I’d rather learn now than in the middle of nowhere with no way to dig myself out of a difficult situation. One of was apparently how a presta versus a schrader valve works and what a universal pump looks like. I assumed this pump was universal. I thought I had a seal and started pumping but there was no tire pressure. Which made sense since a moment later, the tire was so flat it the bike was unrideable. I took out my hand pump to give it another try. This time I took a look at the instructions. They were worse than anything I’d seen with Ikea. I was almost convinced my bike repair kit was missing a piece. In a manic state of desperation, I searched Youtube for a tutorial. I was right to think my instructions were useless, but the Youtube video made the process seem simpler than it was. I needed to unscrew the cap on the hand pump, flip the rubber seal around and screw the cap back on. But the seal was a good two millimeters larger on the other side, so when I flipped it around it didn’t fit in the hole it left. I tried to force it in but it only bent awkwardly out of shape. I spent a good five minutes fiddling with it before I figured it out. Relieved, I went to attach it to the valve. Because it was a rubber seal it required elbow grease to get it over the opening. I pushed it into place and the valve bent. With it bent and the inner tube flopping around inside of the tire, I couldn’t push it far enough in to get a seal.
“I am a stubborn beast, and if I’m at all capable of solving a problem myself, that’s how I want to do it.
I was frustrated and very aware that I had a friend who lived a few blocks away. Should I lock up my bike and go borrow her pump? I am a stubborn beast, and if I’m at all capable of solving a problem myself, that’s how I want to do it. I had my tire repair kit and at this point I knew how to solve the problem. My arms were exhausted but I was almost there! I wasn’t confident that I’d solve it but I was going to try. I pulled out my tire levers, removed the tire, removed the inner tube. The hand pump pushed on easily when I could put pressure on it from the other side. I got the seal! I could see the empty tire filling up. I popped the tube back into the tire and the tire back onto the wheel. The hand pump didn’t have a tire guage, so I pumped until it felt firm and called it enough. I biked about twelve miles on that tire repair, the rest of my bike trip and all the way home.
I went to a bike shop the next day to get a new tube to replace the one with the broken valve, as well as two spare tubes for my trip. I’m poor and cheap, so I bought the tires and changed the tube myself on the sidewalk in front of the bike shop. I’m good at it, it takes me barely more than a minute and I felt savvy doing it myself so skillfully. I just bought what the guy working there handed me, but when I opened the box I discovered these lovely tubes had a beautiful innovation: a nut that held the valve in place, even when the tire was completely empty. With that little ingenuity, the fiasco of the previous day would not happen again.
The Stars On the Horizon 
It’s great that you’re open to learning more and more about your pursuits! Great spirit!
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Reminds me of my own experiences. Broken presta valves… getting caught clipped in. These are lessons that one learns quickly and permanently.
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