Beginners Page # 11 Carrying a Spare Tire

Prologue: The below was originally posted on the right side of the page--in the temporary ramblings section. However, it was suggested that part of the below is so dumb, it should be in the archives so that some other beginner possibly could learn from my many mistakes. And speaking of beginner, I was up to Beginners Page "10"--after stretching it some--and I thought that I had graduated to a higher level and could start on sophisticated topics. Self-grandeur and reality are two different things so on with the Beginners Pages. Recently I was complaining to Randy about all the mistakes I have made and keep on making new ones. He said it was just a learning curve. I think my curve that I am working on is as big as the St. Louis Gateway Arch.


"Carrying a Spare Tire"

On a routine bike check, I spotted a small cut in Christine's back tire. Getting ready for a Saturday group ride, we thought we would bring a spare tire along in case she blew the tire.

Ages ago, I had a blown out one of my tires that had more than 1,000 miles on it, so when I replaced the blown tire, I replaced the other tire as well. So I had a spare tire. It had received some use as I loaned it to Nancy when she blew a tire this summer and loaned it to another person when I blew out his tire putting air in it--but that is another story--point is that the spare we had wasn't brand new.

Now, we knew we had to get the tire small enough to fit into a saddle bag or jersey pocket as we had seen others do on some tours. The new tires we have bought always seemed to be inside out and folded in sections. So I tried to turn the tire inside out. Try as I might, I couldn't get it inside out, so I just folded it in half and then half again. The thing was really resistant, so I had Christine stand on it to squish it down while I put some plastic covered wire ties around it to hold it together. We thought that the tire was rigid from being cold as I had just brought it in from the garage.

Finally, we tied the tire together but it was too big to put in our jersey pocket, so we were hoping that Rick didn't have his "suitcase" full and could carry it for us.

We got to the staging site (Knickerbocker town) and asked Rick if he had room for the tire in his big carrying case. He said yes, and then Ty said he could carry it in his saddle bag. He took the tire from me and had a shocked look on his face. Rick was speechless. Ty asked if it was a wire rimmed tire--"Uh dunno." He informed me it was useless now as the wire would probable break when I unfolded it. Sure enough, it seemed to have a wire rim.

Ty gave me a class on what tires to use to carry them as a spare and how to fold them. What I heard was "Don't do this at home, let a professional do it for you".

So here are some lessons I learned:

You shouldn't bend a wire-rimmed tire.
If you have to bend a wire-rimmed tire, don't have someone stand on it.
You can't make a carry-along spare tire out of every extra tire you may have. Get a ready-made spare to carry around if that is what you want to do.
If you are having to force something, get a second opinion.

Examples of my lesson learned: