tired of tubes!

Tubeless tires Do tyres have to be such a complicated business? It would appear so; Even the simple spelling of the word tyre is complicated! My keyboard is set for American English and puts my spelling of tyre as a mistake, is it?! when I start editing what I’ve wrote (its tiring; pun intended) The spelling tyre does not appear until the 1840s when people began shrink fitting railway car wheels with malleable iron. publishers continued using tire in Britain as late as 1905. The spelling tyre began to be commonly used in the 19th century for pneumatic (air filled) tires in the UK. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica stated that "The spelling 'tyre' is not now accepted by the best English authorities there is nothing to be said for 'tyre', which is etymologically wrong, (the origin of the word being to dress a wheel as in attire) tyre is needlessly divergent from British or older English & the present American usage" However, over the course of the 20th century, tyre became established as the standard British spelling, from here on in I am going American as their spelling is correct! This is mostly a cycling blog; I will stick with Bicycle tires, however; its worth mentioning the huge motorbike car truck and van tire industry. just because of the scale of worldwide industrial waste the industry creates, the design range for bicycle tires is huge! Some may be designed for riding on roads off roads mixed trail city tyres country tires slicks or nobblies for unimproved terrain. These days there is even a growing market for big fat tyres which are great for mud and sand a fashion thing for me, but: worth mentioning to show the unending choice, most bicycle tires are clincher type (they have a bead that presses against the wheel rim). With An inner tube which provides the air pressure and the contact pressure between bead and wheel rim, Inner tube wastage must be a much bigger wastage than tire wastage in the cycling world, in my garage I have a pile of around twenty inner tubes which are ones I have kept that have been punctured, the thinking is put in a fresh tube repair the other later (this never happens), I also have twelve brand new inner tubes of different sizes as spares for various bikes, it’s easier to carry a spare tube than do a repair at times, what to do with all these old tubes? Most cycle shops these days have a bin for them now, these tubes are then collected to get sent for upcycling (not an intended pun but I like it) I was given a new wallet for my birthday made from old bicycle tubes, it’s cool I like it I love all that ethical fair trade upcycling the daunder has Tubeless tires (which are) pneumatic tires that do not require a separate inner tube. I have previously had tubeless tires on motorbikes and obviously cars! but never on a bicycle, the daunders tires were recommended to me by the bike manufacturer, I was uncertain at the time? As I had no clue as to the benefits/or draw backs of these type of tires! I made a spur of the moment decision on the sales persons recommendation and went for it; this is the main reason for this blog page to decide if that was a wise decision or not? It’s not made a simple choice by manufacturers bike shops or fellow cyclists, as they all have their own angle on the subject of inner tube or no inner tube? Which is the future? The first questions for me were what sort of puncture repair kits do you take for tires like these? I stupidly asked no questions about the tires when I picked up the bike from the manufacturer, then; weeks later I was through at the Scottish outdoors enthusiasts show at the SSEC Glasgow, where I saw strange looking tubeless tire repair kits? I purchased a thing called the Nukeproof puncture repair kit, the first time I used this was on a snowy icy morning on Shetland, it worked amazingly well!, I was gutted when I got that puncture, yes: I realise nobody is ever delighted to have a puncture on their bike, BUT; it was cold and I was expecting icy fingers because I had never had to repair a tubeless tyre before, I fully expected to end up having to put the spare tube I was carrying into the wheel, I watched a very quick you tube tutorial on my phone, it looked too easy to believe, put a wee Dod of gum on a needle insert needle into the puncture hole pull out the needle leaving behind some gum sorted!? No way I thought?! But yes; this actually worked and has lasted even until now well over six months on, Then recently I got a puncture on the side wall of the front tire, I thought no problem this is easy now that I know how! I was uncertain as to why it didn’t work with the Nukeproof gum needle kit this time? perhaps due to the puncture being on the sidewall? I thought; Or maybe it was the size of the puncture Perhaps? maybe it was due to it being a slow puncture, it had been allowed to deflate I would blow it up it would deflate overnight, three times I done this before I attempted repairing it? the gum & needle never worked this time, it was back to you tube tutorials (a very apt name no pun intended but I like it) a yet further learning curve Perhaps on reflection in the short term I may well have got away with just putting some glue and a patch on the outside of the tire? I decided to take the tire of and patch it on the inside, from what I had viewed and read on line this meant that I would have to replace some sealant liquid, this was a revelation to me that tubeless tyres have sealant floating about inside them, this sealant that looks like watery wood glue needs replaced every so often I found out. (I now suspect the slow side wall leak was actually due to the sealant needing renewed not a puncture) Sure, enough when I removed one side of the tyre rim it appeared there was no sealant left, I placed a patch on the inside anyway to be sure, then cycled my old cyclocross bike into Falkirk, the trusty old greyhound as my friend Jen had christened it, this bike felt super light and fast compared to the daunder, it actually felt too flighty, once in Falkirk I discovered all the cycling shops were shut down! My nearest cycling shop was now east of Polmont in Linlithgow not west in Falkirk,

No problem I thought; it’s a pleasant cycle into Linlithgow, I went the next day a pleasant cycle along the canal and bought some sealant, the shop assistant was very helpful; he said any problems with getting it blown up just come back in? I have a good track pump at home and initially didn’t understand the shop assistants’ statement about problems blowing up the tyre? I was in a happy place the bike repair was progressing I was enjoying the day out on the trusty greyhound, opting for a touristy circular rout I went round by the palace and loch then over a back road called the flints to Kinneil country park, then home pleasant wee outing

The issue the bike shop assistant tried to warn me about? Was; that with a tubeless tire the initial blow up requires a large volume high pressure surge of air, my blow jo track pump although a great pump wasn’t up to this task! Unfortunately, as hard as I tried pumping, I could not get the rim to seal, next problem! the cycle shop was shut that day, I had gone through to it in my pal’s car, holding a tire that occasionally seeped sealant over my trousers, I had to hold it upright (away from the valve) on the car journey through! Same on the second day (a different friends’ car) when thankfully the shop was open and - bang! I could hear the slap as the high-pressure volume of air forced the rim to seal against the tire wall, (a beautiful sound to my ears) you then need to swirl the tyre around and hey presto at last job done!

Lessons to be learned (you would think) Granted; I would have most likely? been much quicker putting an inner tube in, I need to learn how that will go should I require this in some backwater area miles from a high pressure/volume pump, I should also have put the remaining half tub of sealant into the back tyre at the same time? I had half the tub left, I should have done both tires at the same time, Deal with that later! I had stupidly thought, it should be engraved on my headstone! That or I will get round to fixing that

I put the daunder in the garage making a list of things I need to buy and jobs I need to do before a return to the NCN1 can get restarted, I had made a purchase of a house in Bulgaria! This required me to go there and sign-up paperwork open bank accounts etc, much more on this subject on the blog I keep for my journeys to Bulgaria – http://kenjopolmontski.blogspot.com/2021/09/newcastle-holland-germany.html Once I eventually got home from Bulgaria, I had a huge backlog of paperwork to sort out. I had changed over all my finances to ethical sustainable banking more on that on a different blog still to be updated It was by then over a month since I last took the daunder out! I went to go on a cycle and prepare the bike for the next section of the cycle route, but hey presta! This time the back tire was flat (the one I should have put the remaining sealant in) I blew it up it was a slow puncture I got a trip into town and back on it but had to blow it up three times, this did not help things! when I soaped it; the side wall on either side of the tube had a few small leaks

This time; I knew the sealant would need to be put in, I put some small patches on the side wall leaks, this time! I didn’t even bother trying to add the sealant myself, I took the wheel on the bus to a different bike shop, (the Falkirk one was back open) this shops pump was nowhere near as good as the other bike shops, I had to help the shop assistant with the pumping as it was a sort of pump and accumulator barrel set up! I’ve since made a purchase of a presta valve adapter for petrol station hoses, an adaptor of presta to schraeder valves! Here’s hoping the next time I can use that? there’s definitely benefits to the tubeless set up, perhaps not on a round world trip?