Chafed of Chafe City, recently posted something I thought was interesting. About the same time I was struggling with getting Gilbert's new tires on his rims, she was raging at how insanely hard it can be to change a stupid bike tire. She mentioned that it's easy enough for cars to carry a whole extra wheel with tire already mounted on it around with them at all times, so they never think about it. The mass and awkwardness of carrying a spare on a bike is obviously prohibitive.
If a bike carried around a spare wheel, it would be about as inconvenient as this car I saw this morning carrying an XXL tire around:
That's super-weird. Why would you do that to a BMW? If you needed a tire like that, wouldn't you have a pickup or truck to carry it? And where's he going with it? Where did he come from, what did they think when he loaded it up? So many questions...
ReplyDeleteCool photo! Actually, having brought spare tires home on my bike, I'd be more like the photo if the photo spare were simply resting up there without being strapped down.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to guess I would say that they're taking that tire home to be a play structure or a sandbox for kids. As I posted earlier I think that you can carry a lot of things without needing a truck, and a lot of people buy trucks for the 1% of the time they need to carry something, instead of buying a car that will do the job 99% of the time.
ReplyDeleteI saw your post on changing tires - in my case (i) I don't have the option of the bus and (ii) taking it to a bike shop is far more trouble than fixing it myself at home.
ReplyDeleteI found 2 things help immensely
(a) Metal tire levers
I've broken some plastic tools but not metal levers.
(b) Gardening gloves
Some tires are hard to put on, but if you use tire levers I've punctured a tube or two the rare time I've used them to install tires. I found work gloves make it much easier to remount the tire. I always carry them when I ride.
Also helpful, but less so is a VAR tool for removing and installing tires. It van help pull the tire on the rim, but it is plastic and they do break sometimes.
Angelo
Love the photo...interestingly enough some new cars no longer come with spare tires, due to weight savings (and I am sure cost savings to the manufacturer) instead they provide a can of fix a flat. Now if you blow out or shred a tire you are going to have to wait on a tow! Unlike a bicycle which can be rolled along gently on the rim. I have carried spare tires (not full spare wheels) on tour many a time. I also have learned how to repair a tube without removing the wheel from the bike, a necessity on many bikes.
ReplyDeleteAaron