nigelb
New Member
- Location
- Just west of Cambridge
Cycling home yesterday evening, I had a flat.
Gob-smacked, first in over a year's commuting, and this bike is less than 2 weeks old!
Turned out that the rim "tape" was a rubber band, and had broken, the rim has something akin to a suspended ceiling inside, keeping the inner tube clear of the spokes, however at least one of the edges of the holes through this ceiling to get to the spokes was slightly rough ...
Anyway, one guy stopped with a pump, chatted to calm me down (I was cross, new bike etc), helped me refit the tape as best we could, and only left when I was sorted :-)
Another guy stopped a bit later, and I got even more air in the tyre, and made it the rest of the way home.
Both times, while stopped, several others slowed and checked that we had everything we needed, everyone ok etc!
So, this is a big big "thank you" to the friendly commuters along Madingley Road yesterday evening (and I now have a pump in my bag!).
As for the rim, I've put narrow masking tape, then insulating tape, round, should protect it for the moment, and will raise with the shop - at the very least I'm looking for a new rim tape and inner tube, but I suspect they should really swap the rim for a nice smooth one (and check the front one out too!). I thought one of the advantages of buying new was everything would be sorted, as it is I find my hands tied, not wanting to do anything to invalidate warranties, but still needing to cycle to work!
Nige
Gob-smacked, first in over a year's commuting, and this bike is less than 2 weeks old!
Turned out that the rim "tape" was a rubber band, and had broken, the rim has something akin to a suspended ceiling inside, keeping the inner tube clear of the spokes, however at least one of the edges of the holes through this ceiling to get to the spokes was slightly rough ...
Anyway, one guy stopped with a pump, chatted to calm me down (I was cross, new bike etc), helped me refit the tape as best we could, and only left when I was sorted :-)
Another guy stopped a bit later, and I got even more air in the tyre, and made it the rest of the way home.
Both times, while stopped, several others slowed and checked that we had everything we needed, everyone ok etc!
So, this is a big big "thank you" to the friendly commuters along Madingley Road yesterday evening (and I now have a pump in my bag!).
As for the rim, I've put narrow masking tape, then insulating tape, round, should protect it for the moment, and will raise with the shop - at the very least I'm looking for a new rim tape and inner tube, but I suspect they should really swap the rim for a nice smooth one (and check the front one out too!). I thought one of the advantages of buying new was everything would be sorted, as it is I find my hands tied, not wanting to do anything to invalidate warranties, but still needing to cycle to work!
Nige