When preparing for last week’s sakura ride, I noticed the valve core in the front wheel is bent. It’s an easy fix: swap out for a new core and reinflate the tire. I even had the spare and a tool on hand, but I didn’t relish the job of reinflating the tire from empty with the small hand pump on the bike.

This afternoon I fished the valve tool out of my toolbox and fetched the floor pump from the Workshop in the Sky. The fix is easy enough I didn’t bother bringing the bicycle up the elevator to the workshop — I just did it in the parking garage. After getting the bike down from the rack and getting the spare core out of the saddle bag, it was the work of a minute. Or it would have been if I hadn’t got confused about the lock lever on the pump.

All good in the end. Let’s hope this holds the air a little better now.