Deflated?

Due to having a bad shoulder since the end of October I’ve been unable to get out on my bike for a while but I did notice in December that my rear tyre had lost quite a lot of pressure, so I pumped the tyre back up to the correct pressure and had a good look around the tyre for any nails, screws or small furry mammals that might have got lodged into the tyre causing the problem.

After an exhaustive examination (OK I spun the rear wheel a couple of times, kicked it a few more and made that sucking sound through my teeth that all mechanics seem to do) I couldn’t see anything obvious (obvious as it a 4 foot spike) so I decided that after all this hard work I should treat myself to a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea and have another look later on.

Much later, OK, the following day I checked the rear tyre and while it seemed still fully inflated so I checked the tyres pressure and it had gone down from 42PSI to 39 PSI – Crap! This means I got me a puncture!

This time after I had pumped the tyre back up I spent more time examining it but I still couldn’t find anything that might such cause a puncture, I took the wheel off the bike and using my best BMX puncture repair skills I found a big bucket and subsequently attempted to not only soak myself but drown the wheel in water in a vain attempt to see any air bubbles so that I could find out where the problem was.

After getting completely soaked (did I mention that it was a very cold day?) I gave up and decided to leave it to the experts.

Saturday morning saw me rechecking the rear tyre and then riding slowly down to Wheel House Tyres in Coleshill to see if they could do something with the tyre.

When I arrived at Wheel House Tyres they quickly took the wheel off and they also couldn’t see anything obvious so they decided to replaced the valve and clean the wheel rim in case there was some debris that might cause the problem (I have already looked for small furry mammals myself) and as it turns out when they went to replace the valve they found a very small hole in the valve that may have been caused but the super trendy anodized valve cap that I had fitted (They were on the bike when I bought it – honest!)

After they replaced the valve and fitted a standard valve cap they pronounced the job sorted, this was great news as not only did they find a problem, it was only the valve and that means not having to buy a new tyre or having to ride about on a repaired tyre.

Total cost?

£12.50 happily spent