Inept Commuter Given Mechanical Aid

[eminva]

@brendan 20180 wrote:

I’ve never quite understood the appeal of canisters. If you manage to not get it right the first time (need to patch twice, etc.), you’re SOL. Or you brought two canisters…which is starting to get into the weight class of a pump…

Brendan

I’m a wimp so using a frame pump, I probably wouldn’t get enough air in there to ride safely to the next bike shop. So I was carrying around a canister and a spare tube, hoping to avoid the downsides you suggest. Through this forum, I learned about the Topeak Morph pump, which you can place on the ground for leverage, so now I have one of those.

Liz

[GuyContinental]

@brendan 20180 wrote:

I’ve never quite understood the appeal of canisters. If you manage to not get it right the first time (need to patch twice, etc.), you’re SOL. Or you brought two canisters…which is starting to get into the weight class of a pump…

Brendan

Ironically, I’m with you, canisters kind of suck but at serious risk of offending the cycling gods, I very very rarely get flats- on my MTB bikes I have tubeless & Stans and my road bikes have Kevlar tires. I carried a pump for years and Never. Used. It. Now I carry the itty bitty canister just in case (for this afternoon when the gods strike me down with a double flat in a thunderstorm…).

[Rootchopper]

On the way home last night I was about 7 miles into my commute when Jason came by. This dude is one thorough Samaritan! His repair so far has held for 28 miles and several hills (including the infamous Rosslyn connector).

[dasgeh]

@GuyContinental 20192 wrote:

Now I carry the itty bitty canister just in case (for this afternoon when the gods strike me down with a double flat in a thunderstorm…).

I was like you. Took off one morning on a bike that I hadn’t ridden for a while. a few blocks from my house I had the thought “I should have check the tires”, but they seemed fine. Got onto Fort Myer, right in front of the PX, and noticed one tire was dead. So I’m stuck, and late enough that there are other bike commuters around. I thought it was just a normal low-air problem, so tried the canister just to fill it up. I was wrong. So I replaced the tube, but the canister didn’t have enough to get the new tube inflated. And I was on base. I’m not military. Ugh. I tried the auto repair place, but they didn’t have the adapter to fill up bike tires. After trying a few other places, I found that the only place with a pump was the PX. Long story short, they finally allowed me to buy a hand pump. That travels with me everywhere.

[brendan]

@eminva 20185 wrote:

I’m a wimp so using a frame pump, I probably wouldn’t get enough air in there to ride safely to the next bike shop. So I was carrying around a canister and a spare tube, hoping to avoid the downsides you suggest. Through this forum, I learned about the Topeak Morph pump, which you can place on the ground for leverage, so now I have one of those.

Liz

Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HPG here. Clear tape over the gauge so the printing won’t rub off. I keep it in the triangle bag on the cargo pocket or, on the road bike, in my right rear pocket like the battle weapon it is.

I had three flats in a kevlar-line tire last Thursday around miles 25-35 of the towpath: a piece of rock, edged like glass, had worked its way through the kevlar lining over many miles. So first incursion was in the tube tire-side. I picked out the shard, went over the rest of the tire and cleaned it, booted the tire and put a new tube in. A few miles later, flat again with a *rim-side* hole in the “new” tube. Looked at the rim tape, no obvious problems. I think the tube had spent too many months in a bike bag and was abraded against tools, etc. I patched that hole, set things up again and rode a few more miles, then the valve malfunctioned. It wasn’t a tear at the valve stem mount, just something was preventing the valve from shutting all the way and it was whispering air. Finally, I patched the first tube, swapped that in, re-inflated and hoped for the best.

No canisters for me.

Brendan

[KLizotte]

@brendan 20288 wrote:

Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HPG here. Clear tape over the gauge so the printing won’t rub off. I keep it in the triangle bag on the cargo pocket or, on the road bike, in my right rear pocket like the battle weapon it is.

I had three flats in a kevlar-line tire last Thursday around miles 25-35 of the towpath: a piece of rock, edged like glass, had worked its way through the kevlar lining over many miles. So first incursion was in the tube tire-side. I picked out the shard, went over the rest of the tire and cleaned it, booted the tire and put a new tube in. A few miles later, flat again with a *rim-side* hole in the “new” tube. Looked at the rim tape, no obvious problems. I think the tube had spent too many months in a bike bag and was abraded against tools, etc. I patched that hole, set things up again and rode a few more miles, then the valve malfunctioned. It wasn’t a tear at the valve stem mount, just something was preventing the valve from shutting all the way and it was whispering air. Finally, I patched the first tube, swapped that in, re-inflated and hoped for the best.

No canisters for me.

Brendan

I think I would have started crying or swearing profusely at that point. Good thing you didn’t throw the first tube away.

[GuyContinental]

@brendan 20288 wrote:

Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HPG here.

That’s a pretty cool little critter, looks small enough to tote… perhaps I have tempted the gods enough for one thread.

One additional tool to carry in your bag is a presta/schrader adapter- just in case you get stuck pumpless in schrader land

[eminva]

Well, there is a downside to carrying around all the tools I do — people expect you to have some know-how to go with them. I stopped to help a man with a flat tire last night. He didn’t have a pump, so I offered mine. We pumped up the tire and it seemed to hold air. He had just had an accident which resulted in the flat, so I thought maybe he got a pinch flat either moving from one paved surface to another or as his bike slid out from under him. However, I was afraid to make a diagnosis because I really didn’t know. If the tube was damaged, I didn’t really help him. However, he was going directly to the bike shop so hopefully he had enough air to get there.

I don’t think of myself as very mechanically inclined, but as I talk to cyclists on the trails, I realize there are some, particularly new or returning cyclists, with less of a knowledge base than me. I guess I need to step up my game so I can offer some real assistance out there.

So, if you are the guy who wiped out near the junction of the W&OD and Custis, hope you got back to the bike shop okay, and if not, sorry.

Liz

[brendan]

@eminva 20325 wrote:

Well, there is a downside to carrying around all the tools I do — people expect you to have some know-how to go with them.

I always tell people I’m no an expert and work with them to effect the repair. Though, at some point everyone starts thinking you’re an expert, regardless of what you tell them.

That said, it’s always worth taking a class and/or practicing at home (patching a tube, breaking and fastening an old chain, adjusting your brakes and shifting, figuring out how your cables can be removed/replaced, etc.).

Brendan

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