Blowing Air




Venus, the Symbol of Friday, or, in "French Canada-Speak," Vendredi. From Wikipedia

 Over the Holidays, I went and fixed all the family bikes. While bikes may have some of the same DNA as old English cars, they’re a lot easier to fix. Unlike old English cars, bikes have a greater propensity to lose air from their tires unexpectedly in a rapid fashion. This has caused a reassessment and an actual RESOLUTION to modify my bike commute routine for 2011. It is ironic that, only yesterday, I sorta sneered at the whole practice of New Years Resolution making.


Sleeping, From Wikipedia

My past commute routine has been to top off the air in my bike tires Sunday night or Monday morning. Typically, each tire will require about four strokes of the floor pump to reach full pressure. On occasion, something will go wrong, like the tire will be flat when I go to pump it or it will clearly have lost an abnormal amount of air. Of such events are part of why the “ABC Quick Check” is a recommended routine action. Well, last night, to get a jump on the New Year, I pumped up the tires on my commute bike a little early; Sunday night. As I put the pump head on the front tire valve, came a “psssss” sound that clearly indicated a problem. Since it was SUNDAY NIGHT and not MONDAY MORNING, there was no rush or panic. I simply took off Frankenbike’s recently repaired front tire and put it on Seth. No need to even disturb my spare tube. No fuss, no muss. Oddly, this caused me to double check the Planet Bike backup light and, sure enough, its batteries had died. Had I forgotten to recharge the P7 Light’s batteries, I could have been lightless (well, I would have been reduced to using a Cateye light, anyway). Since I overslept this morning, the temptation to drive would have loomed. Even with the v3 commute, it’s still quicker in raw time to drive than to ride, because I can dispense with having to listen to the weather report before departure.

This serendipitous failure caused me to resolve to revise my commute routine. Henceforth, I resolve to top off the air in my tires and recharge the P7 Light’s battery at the end of the week's commute (FRIDAY) rather than waiting until Monday morning. This routine change has the advantage that if “unroutine” occurs, I do not have to scurry around to fix it quickly for the Monday morning commute. I can even pick up a replacement item at the bike store if need be, which Sunday night checkout does not support.

PS: In retrospect, since Frankenbike is all fixed, I could have taken Frankenbike today, but that would have involved a bit of changing around of lights. Those tool-free brackets, despite what the manufacturers would like us to believe, are NOT trouble-free. It is also odd that, despite sleeping an extra 40 minutes, I actually arrived at work at the same time as usual without skipping things like the morning shower and shave...

Frankenbike, Innocently Resting, Showing Why Kickstands are Often Extraneous