Whataday

[ailbhe]

Numbergames. Phonecalls interrupted changing nappies, dressing children, brushing teeth. Trikling to town to meet people and change PIN on new bank card. Lunch out. Meet people. FIRE ALARM. Flee. Rob trikled Linnea and her friend to nursery and came back again. I tried to trikle a sleeping Emer home (off my back and into the trike with minimal waking! Go me!) but got PUNCTURE. One auto-repair place I passed pumped my tire up but it was a FAST PUNCTURE. So I pushed until the inner tube came OUT and tied itself ALL AROUND THE AXLE. Luckily this was on Gower street opposite the motorcycle repair shop so I WOKE EMER UP and crossed the road and begged for help and they took the inner tube off and fastened the tyre to the rim with cableties so I could push it home.

Pushed it home and the spare inner tube has a puncture TOO.

And anyway the rim tape is shredded.

Damn. I got a puncture last year too. IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. The trike is only two years old. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DRAWING PINS? and why is it always drawing pins?

Anyway, now Emer is asleep and I have to wake her up AGAIN to go to nursery and get Linnea and I DON'T WANT TO.

But Linnea's-and-my relationship really is benefiting from getting out less and seeing fewer people, even though she seemed to be thriving on her previous extroverted lifestyle. Perhaps I confused "she's popular" with "she's happy" or something.

I must email the trike people about a service.

Comments

[rosefox]

I love spending time with people, but I'm still an introvert. Spending time with people takes effort. It's just worthwhile effort.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

You can get puncture-proof tyres (kevlar and more expensive stuff that works better) if it's really a problem, but they're really not cheap - about £40 each, I think. Which is reasonable compared to car tyres, but you need to be getting through a lot of inner tubes to make it worthwhile, and doesn't help if the problem is shredded rim tape rather than sharp things in the road.

Sympathy, anyway. Lots of my route home seems to be covered in broken glass at the moment, which isn't fun. Only one puncture so far, but it's only a matter of time.

[cat63.livejournal.com]

An alternative to kevlar tyres is Slime - bright green gunk that you fill your inner tubes with, which seals punctures, so you can just blow the tyre up again, ride on and deal with it properly when you get home.

You can get the tubes ready filled with it in some sizes too.

The downside is that you have to be a bit more careful pumping the tyres up as the gunk will sometimes escape.

It's very effective against thorns, much less so against things that make slashes in the tyres like flint or glass.

[mrs-warwick.livejournal.com]

we have bought 'slime tubes' for our bikes; inner tubes filled with a gel that makes the tyres self-sealing. We did this because our cat was using the bikes as a step to get up and down the fence. We paid no more than £9 per tube.
Paul tells me that it is possible to buy just the slime (£5) to go in the tubes already on your bike.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

That's worth looking into - thanks!

I have cats, but so far they've done nothing more than given the bike a thorough sniffing.

[ailbhe]

We pump up to 70lb/inch so I'd need to check the slime was good for that. I don't carry a proper high-pressure pump with me if we're just nipping into town - there are loads of bike shops and auto repair places, and I'd have to leave it in the trike, and it might get nicked. The little one we have would be fine if I could stand the kids somewhere while I pumped but no good if I'm pumping against their weights.

[jexia]

If it makes you feel any better, we once got a puncture from a pork chop bone. On our friend's new car we were dropping off for him.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I'm a social introvert. This means when I'm out I'm fine but when I'm in 'my' space I'll then withdraw which is very hard for Alex. I try not to go out too much so I have some energy for him.

[cat63.livejournal.com]

I've consulted my Rob, who knows about technical bike stuff, and he says 70psi should be fine. If you get a big hole in the tyre it may go down again until it sets, but it works really well for small holes like your drawing pin - which he says should be left in place in a slimed tyre and removed once you get home.

I can thoroughly recommend the Topeak Road Morph pump for use "in the field" - it's basically a miniature track pump and even I can get my tyres up to a decent pressure with one.

[d-h.livejournal.com]

I recommend tire slime as well, I poured some into our tires and saw a dramatic reduction in commuting punctures. It should stand up to 70 lb no problem (I've had my tires at that pressure occasionally). The main thing with it is that if you see a fluorescent green spot on your tyre, you should put a patch over the top of the sealed hole at some point- It is not as good as a proper patch, but will get you home from when the hole happens.