Cold hard cash can be good for all sorts of things. Usually for the things that you can buy with it but in some cases it’s good for what you can use it for.
On my way home from my ride this morning I got a flat tyre. Not only was the tube flat, but as I was changing it I noticed there was a slice through my sidewall. Under normal circumstances the best fix would be to pick up the phone and call my wife to come and get me. The other alternative: an old trick I learned using a $5 bill.
I always carry a $5 bill in my toolkit. First, to buy some food if I go hunger flat and second, to help fix a slashed tyre. If neither of those things occure by the end of the ride it usually gets spent on coffee. I just gotta remember to put it back in.
HOW TO: After you’ve replaced the tube, fold the $5 bill in half and put it inside the sidewall of the tyre. Then put the tyre back on the rim as you’d normally do but this time with the $5 bill in between the tyre and tube. This will prevent the tube from ballooning out of the tyre at the site of the slice. At this point you can continue your ride problem-free. Too easy.
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Works well with polymer notes for us Aussies, especially in the wet, but I dunno for our North American cousins ;-).
For those who don’t carry cash around (I’m looking at you Camel), a spent powergel wrapper works just as well.
and a bit of the left over gel smeared over the packet hold it in place while you pump the tyre up.
Looking at the price of tyres these days, I am sure some of them already come with a note or two pre packed LOL
I had to do this once on my wife’s bike after a nail ripped open the sidewall of an Ultreamo. Only problem was I only had a $50 note on me. Putting that into a tyre and riding 40km home with a bit of the note exposed out the side of the tyre was nerve wracking.. LOL
a fiver ?
Find a small piece of plastic that would be suitable for a sidewall rip and tape it to the small handwipe packet you saved from the fast-food place you always go to. The moist wipe will lubricate the final lip of the tire and tube that you have to seat onto the rim and then you wipe your hands, pump it up and bust your move to get back on the road.
And the fiver should be a tenner what with the cost of anything rising as it has been lately.
A couple of thick leaves would work too, not pine needles mind you, but something deciduous, watch the poison ivy. This would leave more for the coffee fund. Kurt
BUT, don’t try to make the tire/bill combo last longer than your ride home…I tried making my slashed tire last for several more rides (it was a small slice, after all) and kept the dollar bill in place for…well, awhile:
flat, flat, flat, flat, flat
due to the tire pressure against the edge of the bill, over time.
I learned!
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