A more exciting day than expected

[tiger_spot]

I hopped on my bike this afternoon to head to City Hall to drop off my mail-in ballot, and promptly ran over a pin and exploded my rear tire.

So I went to the bike shop instead, and got two new inner tubes (one for backup!). Then I dropped off my ballot and changed the tube. This is the first time I've changed a tube on a bike. It wasn't difficult, but it required more strength than I was expecting. Also I had a little trouble getting the wheel properly seated when I put it back on (I've not removed the rear wheel before, either), but it is all better now.

I don't think my hands have ever been that dirty before.

Comments

[ianhickson.livejournal.com]

You should at the very least get kevlar reinforcements inside your tires. Personally I recommend just going all the way to hard case tires. They're more expensive, but I've never had a flat, or had to change an inner tube, in the last 8 years, which includes at least 3 and a half years of bike-heavy car-free life in the bay area. I've picked out glass shards, nails, and sharp stones from the rubber, without any problems, and the pot holes and round spiky organic things that litter the ground around here are no risk at all.

The bike shop in Sunnyvale is especially good for hard case tires; if you're interested let me know and I can get you more details.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Well, this is actually also the first time I've had an inner tube in need of replacement; I have had a flat tire once before, but that was because an overloaded rack wore away the outside of the tire until it went kablooie. (Shoulda seen it coming. Shoulda got a better rack.)

But if I get fed up, I'll let you know.

[chinders.livejournal.com]

*suspicious* You've never gardened or worked on a car before? Or were they actually just THAT dirty?

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Gardening? Bah. Dirt comes off easy.

I think the runner-up may be the time I climbed the pine tree and got quite thoroughly coated in sap.

[chinders.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. The factor you're talking about is the persistence of the grunge, not the grunge itself.

If you're going to continue working on your bike yourself, get used to it...although you'll probably get better at avoiding SOME of the grime as you've done things a couple times. I can change a tube now without any permanent epidermal stains.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Some sort of combination of coverage and persistence, I think. Hm. With a factor for nastiness -- coated in honey? Persistent and thoroughly covered, but not really dirty.

Unless you do it right. :)

[chinders.livejournal.com]

Well, even if you aren't doing it right (and really, what other excuse do you have to be covered in honey? Seriously, please give me another viable option.), you'll be sticky enough that you WILL be dirty and FAST- think Pigpen from peanuts!

So our dirtiness algorithm is taking coverage, persistence, and nastiness into account...any other parameters like expectation/intent (with gardening, you aren't surprised when you end up grimy, and some might say it's part of the attraction) that should be taken into account?

*grins*

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

I think intent usually affects how distressed one is by the dirtiness, but not the actual level of dirtiness proper.

Although whether one is prepared for the mess and has taken appropriate precautions/preparations may fit in there (if you have been changing a tire in your own garage with a nice rag handy and can pop in to wash your hands, that is not so bad, whereas if you are changing a tire on the side of the road with no civilization for miles, that is a much bigger problem). Or maybe that's just part of how quickly you can get it off / how many things you have to avoid touching because of mess?

[brooksmoses]

When I'm doing auto work in my own driveway and have greasy hands, I tend to find that even though I can just pop into the house to wash my hands, I've usually locked the door (by standard habit) and my keys are in the pocket of my relatively-clean blue jeans....

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

The tragedy of pockets!

You should wear tighter pants, to eliminate the temptation to put things in them. Oh, oh, and they should be black so as not to show grease stains.

[chinders.livejournal.com]

Brooks, I think that she just very effectively shut us both up. Should we revolt?

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm being practical here.

[chinders.livejournal.com]

Was that your innocent face? It needs work.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Nah, this is my innocent face.

[chinders.livejournal.com]

*critiques* Too much eyelash batting, not enough naive obliviousness. Lacks a certain "Hmm? Were you saying something? Oh- about ME?"

You might want to work on that.

[chinders.livejournal.com]

Er, oh. The user icon doesn't show up in the e-mail.

Do you really want to claim that your innocent face is in the bath, covered in soap bubbles?

[brooksmoses]

We could cover her in honey....

[chinders.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. :)

[chinders.livejournal.com]

I would argue that it affect the perceived dirtiness level. I'm going to feel much dirtier if I wasn't expecting to get dirty than if I anticipated it, even if my actions and preparation would have been entirely the same in both situations.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

::takes notes::

::waggles eyebrows::

[brooksmoses]

...and really, what other excuse do you have to be covered in honey? Seriously, please give me another viable option.

Well, there's always the Unpleasant Explosive Incident With The Clogged Squeeze Bottle technique. Or, for that matter, creative ways of trying to sling the honey to the top of the bottle that go Horribly Wrong and leave divots in the ceiling....

[argh128.livejournal.com]

A rear tube?

What do you do to hold the chain out of the way?

[chinders.livejournal.com]

I remove the rear tire. I have a quick-release hub, you may need a wrench to remove yours.

[argh128.livejournal.com]

Oh I have a quick release too.

The only time I get my hands dirty, is why I have to pull the chain away from the cassette to seat/unseat the wheel from the frame.

[chinders.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, that. Well, I usually have to pull the tire sort of...out away from the frame, and then...um...maybe sort of twist/pull it away from the chain?

My physical memory refuses to translate into words. I could probably show you how I do it if you're nearby, assuming, of course, that I'm not entirely making this trick up in my delusional brain.

[argh128.livejournal.com]

Sure, thats what I did this morning... its putting it on that i usually get dirty... or in this case, when I forgot that my bike was behind me with the chain "up in the air" and backed into it so I got a nice steak of grease on my shorts.

[chinders.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, the putting back on bit is the easy part, if I'm remembering correctly. My physical memory says "Just thread the gears into the chain and maneuver it in." But y'know, my physical memory is an incommunicative idiot, so don't pay it too much attention.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

I actually didn't get grease on me, it's just that the tire proper was filthy filthy filthy.

Not quite sure how I managed that, really.

[brooksmoses]

That is pretty impressive, really. I think I've gotten grease on my hands from just looking closely at the chain, it feels like.

Tires do tend to get pretty filthy, though. And there's the fact that they're largely made of soot, so it's kind of intrinsic.

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, women bike mechanics...

Oh, sorry.

Um, yay, you!

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Heh. :) I will have to work on it some to get that title; I paid the store lots of money just last weekend to replace my brake pads (and do a general tune-up etc.), which is probably not that hard either.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

That's awesome!

I still haven't changed my own tire. I'm a little afraid of it, as I was afraid of changing my harp strings. What if I can't put the bike back together again?

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Well, if you mess it up, you take it to the store. Which is what you'd be doing if you had them do it from the start, anyway! (Ooh, that's convincing-sounding. I will use it on myself next time something breaks.)

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

I'm so low on time these days that when I had a flat rear tire recently I just walked my bike to a bike shop a few blocks away and had them change it for $10 while I was getting groceries next door, instead of spending more time wrestling with it myself.

I do want to get around to going to one of the free women & transgender bike workshops that a local organization puts on, one of these days ...

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Ooh, a workshop would be neat.

[(Anonymous)]

Well clearly your first problem was deciding to hand-deliver your MAIL-IN ballot, silly girl.

The dirt is merely karmic punishment for half-heartedly procrastinating. (A whole-hearted procrastinator would have put off thinking about the ballot until after the results of the election were announced.)

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

But I'd have to put two stamps on it! That would cost money!