09-13-2013, 06:51 PM
Apologies again to Surreypete for posting so much on his thread- wonder how he's getting on?
Woke up to a flat Armadillo. Yep, really. Mustered the nerve to fix things myself. Can change out 26 in tires without breaking a sweat- figured it was time to graduate to real road bike skins. Love the LBS, but heck, we should try to be self reliant for some things like flats.
Was somewhat surprised at how easily the thing came off and went back on. Could almost get the last bit to pop over the rim, but not quite. Finally resorted to 1 tire lever to finish the job. Carefully.
Woke up to another flat. That was a bummer. Figured it was a pinched tube from using the lever. Took the tire off again.. and for some reason, not by design, noticed the rim tape on this brand new bike was not installed correctly. Two recessed spoke holes weren't completely covered by the tape, leaving tiny partial moon shapes. Submerging the partially inflated tube in a basin of water was telling. One big leak from a major hole, one next to it that hadn't blown out. These matched the two partially covered spoke holes in the rim.
The tape was quite pliable being virtually new. Shifted it over to cover the holes, put in a new tube, and in two days it's stayed inflated. Who wants to buy a pair of Armadillos?
Woke up to a flat Armadillo. Yep, really. Mustered the nerve to fix things myself. Can change out 26 in tires without breaking a sweat- figured it was time to graduate to real road bike skins. Love the LBS, but heck, we should try to be self reliant for some things like flats.
Was somewhat surprised at how easily the thing came off and went back on. Could almost get the last bit to pop over the rim, but not quite. Finally resorted to 1 tire lever to finish the job. Carefully.
Woke up to another flat. That was a bummer. Figured it was a pinched tube from using the lever. Took the tire off again.. and for some reason, not by design, noticed the rim tape on this brand new bike was not installed correctly. Two recessed spoke holes weren't completely covered by the tape, leaving tiny partial moon shapes. Submerging the partially inflated tube in a basin of water was telling. One big leak from a major hole, one next to it that hadn't blown out. These matched the two partially covered spoke holes in the rim.
The tape was quite pliable being virtually new. Shifted it over to cover the holes, put in a new tube, and in two days it's stayed inflated. Who wants to buy a pair of Armadillos?
![[-]](https://forums.bikeride.com/images/flatty/collapse.png "[-]")
