Waaaiting is the hardest part

After multiple visits to yet another cycle shop, this time Chenango Point Cycles, I learned a few things.

1) The front wheels are super easy to remove.
I was certain from all my research on other tadpole trikes (recumbent trikes with two wheels in front and one in back) that the wheel assembly must be super complicated and I would ruin it when trying to disassemble it. However, when once again faced with the wrong sized tubes, I got a pal who rides bikes a lot to come for moral support and finally gave it a go. All I had to do was pop off a plastic cover, use an allen wrench on one bolt, and slide the wheel off its pin. I also learned that the front wheels have drum brakes rather than disc brakes. Neat!

2) Bicycle shops just don't carry the tubes I need.
After fifteen minutes or so of debate, the new bike shop dude finally admitted that the tubes he'd sold me did not in fact fit. He admitted that it had been four or five years since anyone had brought him anything he'd never seen before. He also hopped on the computer and confirmed that I'd have to buy tubes online. But, he also patched up the snakebite (dual puncture from the rim pinching the tube) I got last time I tried to ride to campus.
2b) Patch glue takes exactly five minutes to prime. I will need to study patience.

3) Schwalbe it is!
While they make many different tubes and tires, Schwalbe is largely known as a wheelchair tire company in the US. It's based out of Germany, with the North American headquarters in Canada. Probably because of the European influences, their sizings just aren't like American sizings, especially for bmx bikes, which is largely the market for 20" tires in bike shops here.

4) Tires get the crap beaten out of them from frequent flats.
It's probably not the sole reason I've had so many flats, but it doesn't help that the sidewalls of my tires were all worn and shredded from the abuse of smacking between the rims and the cruel roads. They also sat around largely unused in a garage for three years, and saw a fair bit of use and abuse before that happened. So new tubes and tires are on the way. I just have to be patient. Ha.

5) Wheel:tube:tire diameter numbers make no bloody sense to me.
I remember feeling like I was learning a new language when my dad first got into mountain biking. I learned "babies' heads" (round rocks poking up from trails), "endo" (going over the handlebars, often because of hard front braking and/or babies' heads), and tons of other interesting slang terms. Apparently, I failed entirely to pay attention to or pick up any of the technical lingo. Time to start learning.

See, look at that. The wheel wells themselves are 20". The wheel's diameter looked like 17 to me (when measured across the center, of course), though it has a stamp that says 19. What does it all mean?!