Fairy visitation

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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[XAP]Bob
Posts: 19793
Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

Fairy visitation

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Teeny tiny bit of glass in the rear wheel.

Fortunately deflated whilst I was at a meeting at someone's house, so I had some facilities available.
Dropped wheel before I remembered I had a sidewinder tube, but as it turns out that was a good move, no way I'd have found the hole in the tube without a sink of water, and without the valve/tyre label alignment no way I'd have found the offending glass.

I did realise that I'd decided to replace the front tyres only when I renewed them, and so large tracts of the rear tyre are canvas (not where the glass was though). I'll have to take a spare into the office and change it at lunch tomorrow...

Hub gear and derailleur is great, but makes the wheel change a bit fiddly ;)
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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gaz
Posts: 14648
Joined: 9 Mar 2007, 12:09pm
Location: Kent

Re: Fairy visitation

Post by gaz »

Fitted the studded tyres at the weekend, all well Monday morning.

Left work to discover rear tyre flat. Having had a bit of a fight to get the rear tyre on in the comfort of the garage I decided to pump up and ride home. Achieved this without any trouble. Returned to the garage an hour or so later to investigate, tyre still well inflated.

I was unable to trace any leak in the tube, even under water in the kitchen sink. I checked the tyre carefully but I couldn't find anything poking through, the rim tape appeared fine. I left the tube inflated and fitted a brand new tube.

This morning the rear tyre was flat, the old tube still inflated. There wasn't time to investigate until this evening.

The new tube has a leak from the presta valve (non-adjustable valve core) but no discernable leak anywhere else. The tyre still seems unpierced, the rim tape in good order.

My current thoughts are either deliberate sabotage with some oik deflating the tyre for fun :roll: , or a loose valve core (adjustable) which I tightened subconsciously before pumping back up. Of course the fairy moves in mysterious ways and I fully expect to find a flat tyre in the morning.
High on a cocktail of flossy teacakes and marmalade
mercalia
Posts: 14630
Joined: 22 Sep 2013, 10:03pm
Location: london South

Re: Fairy visitation

Post by mercalia »

gaz wrote:.....
Of course the fairy moves in mysterious ways and I fully expect to find a flat tyre in the morning.....


what do you expect if you keep on calling the puncture pixie a fairy?
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661-Pete
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Joined: 22 Nov 2012, 8:45pm
Location: Sussex

Re: Fairy visitation

Post by 661-Pete »

Perhaps 'sprite' or 'goblin' might be more apt. Or 'orc' if you want to go all Tolkien-fannish. But people in the Caribbean have a lovely descriptive word for midges and mosquitoes, they call them 'no-see-ums'. Perhaps the word could very well be adapted for the elusive beings that attack our tyres....
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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gaz
Posts: 14648
Joined: 9 Mar 2007, 12:09pm
Location: Kent

Re: Fairy visitation

Post by gaz »

This morning the tyre with the original tube was fully inflated, not a fraction of a PSI lost. Same for the journey home. The second tube was also still inflated.

The fairy moves in mysterious ways :? :wink: :mrgreen: .
High on a cocktail of flossy teacakes and marmalade
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