JMZ
0
While we wait for the tire tool update I'll regale you with a suspenseful tire change related story.
Coming back from Lone Star today I rode directly into a pretty nice rain shower. As the sky before me was turning black I put on my rain gear and headed south toward the bright blue thinking I'd be out of it shortly. It kept piddling on me for a few miles, just enough to need to keep the face shield down to stop the sting. Coming into the Northrup Curve - you know, there by the railroad tracks - the front end washes out. For a moment I see myself low siding into a long skid through the railroad ballast along the side of the road. So following the adage "Ride it until the crash; you just might save it," I did all the wrong things, put a foot down, snapped the throttle shut, climbed up on the seat and instead turning a low side into a high side like should have happened, the bike straightened out.
As I rode along pondering if the problem was too much speed or wet roads or too much speed on wet roads I passed my turn. Making a slow U to go back I realize the bike is handling like it's in wet concrete. Yep, the problem was a flat front tire.
The other day I as bragging that in 40 years of riding I had never changed a roadside flat on my own bike. Intending to keep that record in tact I put in a CO2 cartridge and started nursing the bike the seven miles back to my house hoping I had a slow leak. In about ten minutes of slow gravel I realized that I wasn't going to make it so I pulled over. For another ten minutes I fiddled around with the jack stand (I had brought the wrong one) and tools, called my wife to put her on extraction notice, cursed my bad luck, looked for big rocks and wondered if the nearby farmer had a compressor. Finally I gave up and implemented the RollingJ jack stand maneuver. Yes, I laid the Bavarian Princess on her side. With the front wheel soon removed it took only another ten minutes using the methods outlined in this thread to install a new tube and be on my way.
So anyway the morals of the story are: Put on your rain gear before it rains. Sometimes heavy duty tubes can mask a flat. Never, ever brag that you've never had a flat. And lastly, two thirds of the time it take to fix a flat are spent wishing you didn't have a flat and looking for big rocks so just fix it.
Can you repeat tat SIR ?