Day 151

151/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

Remember that new bike from Day 122 that I was so stoked on? Well it's being a real pain in the ass right now.  

The front tire had a slow leak that was progressively getting worse. Annoyed, I went and bought a patch kit and some plastic tire irons. Remember in 5th grade how you had to give a class presentation? Well, I showed my class how to change a bike tire. I rode my bike to school from 3rd grade until high school and I've changed many a flat tire, so this would be easy, right? 


I pulled my wheel off, pulled off the tire and, with the care of a surgeon, extracted my tube. I pumped it up, and for the life of me I could not find the leak. Finally I had to fill my bathtub with water and dunk the tube, which is what this picture is from. Finally I found the bubbles, and was able to find the tiny, tiny hole that was leaking air out. The hole was in a weird spot near the stem, so it was hard to patch. I patched it anyway, but I wasn't so sure it would hold. I reassembled my bike, patched tube and all, and rode it for the day. 


By the time I got  home that night, my tire was flat again. No biggy, I thought to myself, I'll just get a new tube. So that's what I did. Take the wheel apart, swap the tube, put it all back. I was SURE that was going to fix the problem. The next day, I rode my bike to class because it was cold, and by the time I was out of class, my tire was flat again. I walked home, pulled the new tube out, and found that it was popped in the same spot. 


I was super frustrated, and now I'm just going to take it in for a tune-up and have the guy at the shop figure out what the deal is. I haven't made time to do it yet, though, and I've been riding my skateboard to teach my bike a lesson.