It’s too hot to go riding today, so I decided to take care of some bicycle maintenance I’ve been putting off. But I was unprepared … for the heat.
Since I had a blowout on the rear tire a few months ago, the wheel has been sitting in the Workshop in the Sky while I’ve been thinking about what to do (and riding another wheelset in the meantime). Rather than buy a new tire just yet, I decided to remount the WTB 47mm tires that Kuroko originally came with (although they were mounted with tubes originally). I’ve got four of these sitting around, including one I bought as a spare for Lejog that has never been used.
I was also unprepared for multiple, fruitless attempts at getting the tires to seat. By the second attempt, I was wondering if the rubber had dried too much since I last used these tires. By the fourth or fifth attempt, I could see that all the air was escaping pretty evenly around the rim and decided I’d better re-tape the rim before I suffered coronary seizure from all the pump action.
Yet another thing I wasn’t prepared for
Figuring I’d clean up the rim and add two or three new layers of tape, I pulled off the original tape. It came off easily and in one piece. I opened the package of the new tape and got a bit of a shock: it’s noticeably narrower than the tape that came from the factory. I have 20m of 21mm tape (probably enough for five rims double-wrapped), and the factory tape is 25-26mm.
So I ordered some 25mm tape and it will arrive tomorrow. Then I thought for a moment about whether to continue with the rest of the maintenance — i.e., the real goal of the day.
And given the heat, I decided to wash up and have a cold one.
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