New Tires are GO

I received my new tires and tubes from Schwable on Friday, but had some plans for the day and the ensuing weekend, so I had to wait until Monday to install them. I am so glad that I learned how easy it is to remove the wheels. It makes tire and tube installation so much easier!

Today was a downright gorgeous day for Bingo, so after making a quick dinner I walked over to the Velo's garage. Of course, it drizzled on me a bit on my walk over. But it was in the upper 70s today, so a little rain felt pretty nice. By the time I'd checked over the velo and realized that I hadn't fully charged the batteries for one of the headlights, the rain had let up. I ignored the little rumbles of thunder and rolled on out for a quick ride around the neighborhood.

What a difference! Even the hills felt easier to master with the new tires. I tooled around for a good half hour or so before I hit another wretched pothole and got another flat. Snakebite. I'll have to look into why those happen so often and what I can do about them. I pulled up onto the sidewalk and realized I'd really like to have two things: something to use as a jack and one of those little kneeling boards for gardening. I think a pint-sized soup takeout container from the Chinese place will work for a jack, and at least it's the season for finding gardening equipment right now.

At any rate, it probably took me about ten minutes to take the wheel off and install a new tube. I brought the flat home for investigation, but figured it'd be easier to pop in a new tube than to sit by the road and patch it--especially given the black clouds moving fast in my direction. Since there's a severe thunderstorm watch on, I figured it was better to beat the worst home and call it an evening.

Here's hoping I can solve the frequent flat problem. I don't think my bank account can stand buying new tubes every time I ride, and you can only patch the poor buggers so many times.

Still, someone pulled up next to me to investigate while I was changing the tire, so I'm still spreading the velo love! Now, if only I can get into shape for the Ride for Roswell.