response 75 of 103:

Jun 3 00:28 UTC 2002

I went on the same 7 or 8 mile ride by myself that I went on with John 
several days ago.  It's a good 45 minute ride for me.  It's neither 
easier nor harder than with John.  It's a little quicker because I'm 
concentrating on riding and not on answering his questions.  Or because 
my bike works better now.

My rear tire, for which I just replaced the tire and tube last week, 
was dead flat.  I filled it up, though, and it seemed fine; it was fine 
for the ride I just took.  If it's flat again tomorrow I guess I'll get 
another tube.

Sindi, you may have been right about the bike seat.  Today's ride was 
much less painful.  Thanks!

response 77 of 103:

Jun 3 02:36 UTC 2002

Bike tubes are usually easy to patch, as sindi says.  Getting the tires on
and off the rim is hard.  I usually use actual bicycle tire irons.  Whatever
you use, you need to be careful not to pinch the tube between the tire and
the wheel, or with your tools.  Make sure it is well tucked into the tire and
stays there.  I've occasionally fixed a tube, then put a new hole in it while
putting the tire back on the wheel.  This seemed especially likely if I tried
using moderately inappropriate tools (like screwdrivers) to do the job.

John replaced both the tire and the tube, so this isn't relevant in this case,
but another common reason for a repaired tube to go flat immediately after
putting it back on the bike is that the nail or whatever is still in the tire.
You need to *very* carefully inspect the tire inside and out to make sure
there are no little sharp things stuck in it.  I'd usually try to find the
leak without completely removing the tube from the tire so I'd be able to
figure out what part of the tire was at the leak, so I can inspect that part
of the tire.

response 79 of 103:

Jun 3 07:40 UTC 2002

Way to go, Steve.
Yoy beat me there!
I merely did one 65 mile ride (and a windy one too).

As for fixing flats, Sindy, you forgot to mention to check to outer 
tire for shards of glass or other sharp things penetrating the tire. 
They can cause new flats to happen very soon.

I agree with Steve that replacing a tube isn't hard at all. This 
certainly goes for a racing bike where you just take out the wheel and 
fix it.

response 81 of 103:

Jun 3 15:12 UTC 2002

I fixed tubes, and replaced tubes, when I was a kid and my bike was my 
sole means of transportation, as well as essential to my income (I was 
a paperboy).  I don't have the patience for fixing them any more.  If 
I'm fixing my bike, it's because I want to go for a bike ride, and 
probably want to take my son for a bike ride with me.  I don't want to 
mess around with patching.  Fixing a tire probably means I'm repairing 
instead of riding that day.  

Replacing my tires and tubes last week took me maybe an hour, including 
driving the bike to a gas station for air.  I got self-sealing tires; I 
thought they'd take care of slow leaks somehow.  If my tube is leaking, 
it must be a slow leak; it was fine for an hour yesterday after I did 
nothing more than put air in it.  I'll try to remember to check it 
tonight to see if it's flat again.  If it is, it's getting a new tube; 
then I don't have to worry about my patch leaking or falling off or 
something.

response 83 of 103:

Jun 3 18:31 UTC 2002

Yes, that'd be great!  Thanks!

response 85 of 103:

Jun 4 03:27 UTC 2002

Do you have anything that can pump up either a bike or an air 
mattress?  I just discovered tonight, to my surprise, I have a couple 
of them.  Blowing air into an air mattress gives me a headache.  
Anyway, one of the air mattresses is one of those big things to use for 
making a quick bed for guests; you'd kill yourself blowing one of those 
up my mouth.

response 87 of 103:

Jun 4 17:59 UTC 2002

A Therm-a-Rest on top of an air mattress works well, too.

response 89 of 103:

Jun 5 03:22 UTC 2002

Jim has an electric pump and he also found three foot pumps and will check
out which if any work, some time this week or next.  Today he spent the day
working on my three bikes.  Got the seat adjusted properly on the oldest and
the brake cables shortened, which you need to do as the brakes wear down. 
Switched grips on the second.  Replaced the handlebars on the third with some
hacked off new aluminum ones, and the knobby grips with smooth ones from #2,
and then spent a few hours shortening the gear shift cable to the rear
derailleur, which was one-size-fits all meant for a wide handlebar up high
on a large men's bike but had been put on the opposite, to reduce friction,
then adjusting limiting screws back and forth, and cable length ditto, until
I could finally use all the gears and switch between them without having to
switch two numbers to go one gear.  The perfect bike!  We saw the men's model
in Two Wheel Tango on Hoover for $300, and some other bikes for up to $2000
and a cheapie for $280.  Skinny tires with wide seats and vice versa.  Little
bags that go on the handlebar for $60 ($70 in a catalog) while K-Mart has
bikes for $70.  A variety of flashing LEDs.  A Kiwanis volunteer buying a NEW
bike helmet instead of a Kiwanis $3 model.  They matched Nashbar's handlebar
price when I said I would order from Nashbar since I wanted cheap ($10).
They also told me I needed to replace the second gear ring in the cluster
because it was worn from lots of use and that is why it skips (free advice)
on my oldest bike, and to shorten the cable on the newest one to adjust the
gears.  Great Lakes Cycling.

response 91 of 103:

Jun 10 01:24 UTC 2002

This morning Jim fixed up a Tracker that is a cheap bike with a few expensive
looking features (cantilever brakes, black steel;  Shimano derailleur and SRAM
twist grips) and weighs 38 pounds without racks (mine is 29 pounds).  He
patched the front tube (three times - he says it looks like the tube got
pinched) and trued the wheel and we sanded off the rust (steel wheels) and
put on a saddle and adjusted the brakes and he rode it in one gear and was
going to fix it once we got to Independence Lake (the shifters) but he spent
the whole two hours on a picnic bench nose up - said the sun got to him.

We found a nearly car-free route!  On the way there we biked down Hiscock and
across Main to the dam near Argo park, over the train tracks, along the river
past Artrain NEW Center and Triangle Towing and the UM Crew, through the woods
to Bandemer Park and under the highway to Whitmore Lake Road.  One mile or
more uphill with cars roaring by (only bad section of the trip) then left on
Stein, then to Joy and Jenning and across N. Territorial to the park.  Coming
back we turned south off Stein onto a dirt portion of Main (all roads were
dirt going from Stein to the lake) and then onto Lansdowne, and thence to
paved roads in Barton Hills - Country Club, then Forest Lane (steep downhill)
and Barton Drive along the river back to Bandemer Park, and retraced our
route.  1.75 hours there, 1.5 back (downhill).  We saw three rabbits, three
deer, four people, and lots of birds on the way back.   Heard almost nothing
en route but birds and airplanes, and at the lake, lots of kids playing.  My
neck feels pink.

Does anyone know a relatively car-free way to get to Island Lake?  We are
considering variations involving Huron River Drive, Miller, Island Lake Rd.,
etc.  We prefer dirt roads but they don't go there.  Which of the paved roads
have the least cars?  It is a 25 mile trip if fairly direct.

response 93 of 103:

Jun 10 23:33 UTC 2002

Another excursion.  We have been out of cooking oil for a few weeks while
waiting for bru, who lives near the CHinese store where we buy it, to pick
a time for us to adjust and fix up his 3/$4.50 bikes.  It appears he is in
no hurry so today, after we also ran out of the olive oil we had been using
as an emergency substitute, we were going to take a quick
post-morning-rush-hour bike ride up Broadway to get it.  Unfortunately the
friend who we told to give us a few days notice when he wanted his HP
cartridge refilled notified us as 10 pm that he wanted it at 8:30 am so Jim
wasted the morning trying to find some way to test it as our printer (same
cartridge) needs Win drivers which were on my hard drive that he reformatted.

At 12:30 he started replacing brake cables on his mule with the big rear
basket, and we got our usual nice early start half an hour past solar noon.
Paused halfway up Broadway hill at Plymouth Mall (where the store was out of
peanut oil) to buy asafoetida at the natural vitamin and herb store.  (The
coop only has small expensive jars, not bulk).  Continued to the top of the
hill and got our peanut oil at China Merchandise, which has expanded to
include a video rental place and a post office.  Dropped off our library
books.  Since it was 4 pm we holed up for 2 hours until the worst of the
traffic went away, eating a Merchants of Vino $4 watermelon (half would have
been $6), then biked back on the gentler slope of whatever they call that
street that got widened and has a bike path.  

On the way I spotted an abandoned bike (no saddle) which looked different.
It has 700 mm (!) wheels (we can replace the rustiest spokes) and a rear rack
and some nice brakes and levers.  The rubber over the twist-grip shifter had
disintegrated over the years, and the chain does not move.  Jim wants
the wheels to put on a mixte-frame 27" bike, along with some other 7-gear
shifters (we have plenty now).  You have to bend the frame a bit to accommodate
the larger wheels. I think it is the front fork that needs to be given a
slightly greater rake. We did a bike like this for me.  

China Merchandise has fish from $1.09 to $3/pound, and the Plymouth Mall place
had $5/pound shiitake dried on sale.  Jerusalem Market around the corner has
good olive oil and mangos.  Jim is off (possibly on foot) to rescue the
abandoned bike while I think of something interesting to do with mushrooms.
We have not found any pleasant way to get to this part of town, have you?

response 95 of 103:

Jun 11 02:36 UTC 2002

I forgot to mention that we first took apart a bunch of computer stuff, loaded
it into Jim's rear basket, and dropped it off at Friedman's on Broadway, where
Jim looked for copper sweat fittings (they had scrapped them all) and we ran
into a friend buying the makings for a copper fountain, and also a box of osme
else's computer discards.  We went through it and got a P90 with heat sink,
and all the 60 and 70 ns 72-pin SIMMs (left the 30 pin, which were as slow
as 12 ns - someone else is keeping even more obsolete stuff than we are). 
Also we stopped at Plymouth Mall at two stores and then at the library before
reaching the very top of the hill around 4:00.  It was also very hot and sunny
so I walked up the last part of the hill to stay a bit cooler, and it took
forever to cross some of the worst streets, and there were lots of vehicles
blocking the sidewalk while they waited to turn (I banged on one to get its
attention before walking my bike out into traffic in front of it to get around
it).  This was an awful area to bike in but the destinations were interesting.

I find driving extremely inefficient, as regards materials and fuel, and also
quite unpleasant.  Biking would be way more efficient without cars in the way.

Jim just finally left to get the abandoned bike after spending a few hours
talking to his housemate (he went to get a saddle for it) and a neighbor and
eating supper and emailing someone.  He wants it before the storm starts.

At the vitamin store things were only alphabetized by the first letter and
there were LOTS of a's.  I never knew people actually bought some of the weeds
that grow around here, or black walnut bark.

response 97 of 103:

Jun 12 01:53 UTC 2002

sindi, why don't you use the bus system?

response 99 of 103:

Jun 17 14:37 UTC 2002

Re #75: If you continue to have problems, Two Wheel Tango's prices seem
reasonable for doing tire repair work.  I had them put a new tire on one of
my bike wheels when I had trouble doing it myself.  I think I'll let them do
it in the future -- it seems worth the money not to have to struggle with
getting the tire back on the rim and end up with sore hands.  I used to do
my own repairs on the 20" wheel bikes I had as a kid, but narrow 27" rims
are much harder to mount tires on.  At very least I recommend you get tools
designed for the job at a bike store.  I once ruined a tire trying to mount
it with the wrong tools.  (I damaged the tire bead, causing the tire to
bulge and threaten to blow out.)

You may want to make sure one of the spoke ends inside the rim isn't poking
the tube.  They should all be covered with a rubber strip.  A strip of
electrical tape works, too.

Re #88: Meijer sells a cheap hand-operated double-acting mattress pump
that's surprisingly fast, and also makes a good bellows for stoking
campfires.