Biking Woes

In the grand scheme of things with nuclear reactors breaking apart and all the human misery in Japan and with mad dictatorial tyrants being stymied from killing their own people wholesale - momentarily at least - my little biking woes are certainly not important.  Nonetheless, they are the ones that are impacting me most currently and directly. 

Having managed to replace my bicycle seat - and yes, it's working beautifully so far - I thought that my biking excursions would no longer pose a problem.  I was too optimistic.  This morning, as I approached Céligny-Gare, about 5k from home, I felt an ominous bumpety-bump.

Sure enough, my rear tire was rapidly going flat.  There was nothing to do but to dismount and walk the bike home, hoping that the tire wouldn't wear out on the way.  I guess it was time.  Both the tire and the inner tube, which is the likely culprit, have served me well for 20 years.  But now the challenge is how to change a tire.

Having learned from my last experience, I checked what expertise Google could offer me.  Sure enough, first there was this advice from Wikihow.  Then, there was this exellent video from Expert Village.  Unfortunately, the only problem with that video was that the demonstrator was changing the front tire.  Rear tires are somewhat more complicated.   Google didn't let me down.  This little video from Ehow showed me how to do remove the rear wheel.  Then I found another comprehensive description of changing a bicycle tire, this time without using the levers that all the other instructions had provided for.

I had the choice of repairing my inner tube or replacing it.  Considering its age, I decided to replace it.  The information that I found stressed that I had to use the right size inner tube, which meant that I had to measure my wheel and tire width.  Then there was a quick trip to my trusty Jumbo store to pick up the new inner tube, which set me back CHF 5.95.  That amount fell within the price ranges that I had seen on the Web so it seemed reasonable.  The only thing that I am worried about is whether I have the right kind of valve.  I never realized that bicycle inner tubes were quite as complex as they seem to be.

After I've run through my video tutorials and other information one more time tomorrow morning, I'll try to change the tire.  If I'm successful, you'll see it here!  If I'm not ... let's just say that I probably won't be trumpeting my failure.