Song: O Fortuna
Composer: Carl Orff
After returning from my last trike ride in a canyon near Royal Gorge...
I realized my left front tire was flat.
I had seen some thorn bushes in the canyon...
but I hadn't thought they could penetrate my tires.
Although I had a tire repair kit on my trike...
as the leak was very small...
I hadn't noticed it until after getting home.
Realizing that a flat many miles up a trail
is not something I would want to experience...
as it could be a royal pain fixing one...
I ordered 2x Tannus Armour tire inserts and inner tube combos
for my front tires.
I will order another one for the rear tire at a later time...
as if need be...
I could walk it back easily by picking up the rear of the trike.
However...
should one of the front tires be flat...
it would be far more difficult to walk it back.
In the future...
I will be going on trails many tens of miles long...
but before I do that...
I will also install the armor tire insert on the rear tire as well.
Now...
I haven't had to repair a bike tire since I was a young boy...
and these tires are specially made to lock on to the rim of the wheel...
as they must be able to travel on very low pressure for loose sand, mud or snow.
As such...
the tires are especially thick, tight, and stiff around the rim.
At first...
I could just break the tire seal on the rim with my fingers and bodyweight.
This allowed me to insert a tire removal tool to run around the rim...
taking the rim of the tire off the seal and over the top of the rim of the metal wheel
with relative ease.
I had ordered these as I need to ensure I never have a flat by a thorn again.
After popping off the tire over the rim of the wheel...
I pulled out the punctured inner tube
(note the valve stem...
it is of the type used on high pressure bike tires...
which is stupid because these are low pressure tires).
I tried finding the hole in the inner tube...
but as it was a tiny thorn...
I couldn't find it.
It didn't matter anyway.
The new inner tube was smaller as it had to fit inside the armor of this system.
It also had the standard car tire type valve stem...
which I am glad for...
but had proved to be slightly problematic...
as you will soon see.
The armor is made of a stiff high density foam that is 15 mm thick
in the center...
and tapering off to 3 mm on the lower sides.
After checking the valve stem width of the new inner tube
(I could see that it was thicker)...
I knew I had to grind out the valve stem hole to a wider dimension
to accommodate the wider width of the new valve stem type on the inner tube.
Now...
this is where the frustration began to build.
I had initially bought a small and inexpensive mini grinder...
never again.
The rims of my trike are made of fairly thick and specially hardened aluminum.
Not only was the mini grinder ineffective on this metal with every abrasive bit
of the kit...
it couldn't tighten down hard enough to keep the bit from spinning in the jaws
of the grinder.
And so...
I got my drill.
I threw away the mini grinder.
I simply cannot stand anything I cannot depend on.
I had thought that I could wear away the metal by essentially using
a metal drill as a router.
No...
it just wasn't working well.
Time for the big guns.
This particular drill bit did the job in a few seconds.
I had to ensure that I drilled out the rim on both sides...
and that it wasn't sharp so that I wouldn't guillotine the valve stem.
Emplacing the first rim of the tire over the wheel was relatively easy
just using my hands.
I then had to lift the tire high enough to emplace the armor inside of the tire
without pulling off the first rim of the tire from the wheel.
Okay...
even though it was relatively stiff...
no problem.
I then had to stuff it over the wheel and then emplace the inner tube inside of the armor.
I aligned the valve stem and then began to stuff the inner tube over the wheel rim.
Then...
I had to stuff down the near side armor over the rim.
I just used my hands as I didn't wish to pinch the inner tube with a tool.
As I neared completion of this task...
it became very tough to get the final few inches inside as the armor
refused to stretch.
At this point...
instead of screaming like a toddler...
I elected to just step outside the garage and onto the first floor deck to cool off.
I sat on this railing for a few minutes just cooling off.
As the brisk mountain breeze cooled me down...
I felt much better.
I looked out over the forest and at one of the nearby mountains...
regathered myself...
and headed back into the garage.
After I realized that it wasn't going to be a few minute job...
I got my IPod and speakers from the exercise room...
and played some calming music while I worked.
After emplacing the armor into the rim...
then came the most difficult part of all...
placing the final rim of the tire over the lip of the wheel rim.
I had stupidly placed my faith on two gimmicky wheel tools.
While at first...
they had worked well...
just as the installation became difficult...
I could move them no farther.
I ended up breaking one of them.
As I hadn't bought proper tire levers...
I decided to improvise using a set of olympic weight clamps as tire levers.
After much time and effort expended
(I didn't have enough leverage with these)...
I finally got the tire securely in place.
I pumped up the tire and finally felt good...
until I went to pump up the right side tire using this air pump.
I had forgotten that I needed a special adapter to even fill the other tire with air
as it had the other type of valve stem...
for which I didn't have an adapter
(it was too low to ride until I change out the right tire as well).
I was going to emplace the armor on the other side tire...
but I realized I would need to wait for the proper tools...
and so...
frustration had, once again...
momentarily settled in.
I closed the garage...
went upstairs to the computer station in the loft...
ordered the tools I should have had from the beginning...
and then sat looking outside to...
once again...
cool down. :)
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These are the tire levers I should have gotten in the first place:
They are almost a foot long each for much needed leverage...
have padded sure grip handles...
and come with rim protectors.
I should have realized...
a man should never skimp on his tools.
In order to do the job correctly the first time...
you must have the correct tools in the first place.
They should arrive in a few days.
Besides my tools and inner tube repair kit...
I will also carry some cans of fix a flat for the trails in the future.
I will also be staying away from thorny places.
(I should have realized this earlier...
as the canyon was hot and dry...
a perfect breeding ground for thorny plants).
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I am going to make a special meal for myself tonight
(I know...a man shouldn't feel proud of himself for not acting like a toddler...
but I am anyway :)
Where I used to give a loud tiger roar when I got frustrated...
I calmly took a breather today...without blowing up.
I know...I know...
What...
it took you 65 years to figure this out? :)
