Cranky and Sons Bicycle Repair

[Cranky]

The news: we've been placed, at Cinnamon near 5:15. We'll be formally open mornings until 1pm. Tools and DIY instructions always available. Anyone who would like to help out, mornings or other times, is more than welcome!

[FIGJAM]

You're just down the street and close just when Elliot opens!

[Cranky]

The proximity is coincidental. Our closing time was, in part, intentionally set to dovetail with the opening of Elliot's Emporium. (The other part is related to the half-life of my morning espresso...)

[FIGJAM]

Yes, but I can point them in your direction till Elliot gets off shift.

[Cranky]

I've always wondered why we fix so many flats, given the scarcity of thorns and broken glass on the playa. Well, I just inventoried the tub of flat tubes we hauled home from our lat burn. Maybe 20% had punctures. Half the rest had no leak at all (!) and the rest had tears at the valve stem. This seems to say that many people are arriving with flat tires, and we've been neglecting to ask them when the tires were last pumped up. And many people have been hitting the brakes while riding with an under-inflated tube, causing the tire to rotate on the rim, tearing the stem and ruining the tube.

Radical unpreparedness strikes again...

[Elliot]

Hear, hear! Same problems at my camp. ...With the variation that many tubes have very small leaks, so that they slowly lose pressure during the week, which I consider unacceptable. Thus I am a big fan of brand new tubes, and I strongly recommend the "thorn resistant" kind. These cost eight bucks instead of four bucks, and they are worth those pennies a million times over.

In other words, if people pump up their tires the day before leaving for the Playa, and the tires seem fine the next morning, they may still be disappointed a couple days later, when they are on Playa and time is so precious. So I join Cranky & Sons in advocating radical preparation -- please replace any questionable tubes and tires right away, and monitor the pressure for these last couple weeks.

One more thing, though. Unless you live in Truckee, do not leave home with full pressure in the tires. The Playa is at 4,000 feet, and you may travel over even higher elevations -- Donner Summit is above 7,000 feet. So leave home with maybe 30 PSI, and pump up to the pressure listed on the tire after arriving on Playa. (Yes, you should have a good pump and a gauge.)

This has been a guest appearance by a fellow bicycle service camp. We now return you to Cranky And Sons, in progress.