Blue Jay Tube Replacement

Pi Guy and I were given a reprieve by the weather on a Saturday and set out to repair Blue Jay’s bicycle tire. It was chilly, still, at a little under 50 degrees, but doable. I had purchased a pair of tubes at Target earlier in the week. Blue Jay has a Schwinn so that is the brand we bought. I had confirmed the tire size before we went to the store.

I had thought that I had “slimed” her tires, but didn’t see any evidence of that. “Slime” maybe a brand name. It is the stuff that keeps a tube from going flat by sealing from the inside small punctures. I’ve done several others of our bikes since we ride on the trails so much, and are liable to pick up the goat heads.

I was please with Pi Guy’s involvement in doing this repair. We noted that the tire manufacturer’s name was adjacent to the valve stem, just as Mike at Bicycle Village had suggested as protocol. Lucy was our photographer, as we made the change.

We followed the technique that we had observed with Mike.

We checked the tire at the relative position that we observed the puncture in the tube for any remaining projection. When I sealed the puncture with my finger Pi Guy observed that it appeared to be the only one. We checked the rest of the tube just in case, considering that I had removed two thorns from the tire when it went flat.

Pi Guy corrected me when I didn’t slightly inflate the new tube before having him insert it into the tire. We did inflate it slightly before replacing the tire back on the wheel, and checked to see that we didn’t pinch the tube. Pi Guy saw one such pinch point, which he corrected. We inflated the tire, mounted it on the bike, spun it (it looked true), and checked the brakes. That was it, a successful change.