Maintenance time

The beats through the saddle reported at reference 1 have been getting worse and I could just about detect something wrong in the vicinity of the valve for the inner tube. So moved today, in the margins of getting in a spot of rolled pork against the weekend, to visit the cycle shop. The plan being to buy a new back wheel, tyre and tube, to fit them at home and then possibly to take the old wheel back to the shop to be straightened - something I used to go in for a regular basis in the past. To the point of buying my own spoke spanner - an affair of pennies in those days rather than pounds - although I never got as far as attempting to use it.

However, the assistant at the cycle shop spun the back wheel and pronounced the problem to be badly worn & split tyre walls, perhaps not that far off bursting, which might be unpleasant, depending where one was when it happened. He had run out of quality tyres, so I had to settle for a £25 job from Nutrak, a division of H Young (Operations) of Milton Keynes. A Mileater RF PP BK TYN 103, made for Madison in China. Apart from the places, all new to me. Plus a new tube against the possibility that the old tube would be damaged in the course of getting the old tyre off or the new tyre on. New tube from Specialised, the people from whom I bought the bike maybe 15 years ago now, although the bike itself is a Trek. South Croydon branch.

I declined the offer to have them fitted, not because of the fiver or so he would charge, but because I would have to hang around for an hour. Not so good now that I am not comfortable hanging around inside cafés or public houses, of which there were several in range.

As it turned out back in the garage back at home, the damage was done getting the old tyre off, so that the old inner tube is now put aside against the unlikely possibility that I will mend it. I've got the stuff, but it is pretty old, probably best to replace it.

Unlike the Continental tyre which came off, which I remember being a bit of a swine to get on, I was able to get this new tyre on without using the tyre levers at all. No damage to the new tube at all. And as far as I could see the new tyre was firmly sat, fair and square on the rims of the old wheel - it being easy enough to get a tyre on crooked, which results, once again, in unpleasant beating through the saddle.

And I thought to check that of the three cassette removal widgets in the bicycle box, one fitted this cassette, which means I should be able to get it off - the chain showing signs of stretching meaning that change of cassette and chain is not that far off. Hopefully not change of crank which I certainly can't manage myself. All stuff that I had forgotten about in the years that I was making more use of Bullingdons in London than my own cycle in Epsom, Bullingdons which someone else looks after for the paltry £2 the using day that I was paying them.

The only problems came when I put the wheel back on. First, the light was bad for this sort of work. Maybe I need a north facing window in the garage like an artist, rather than the south facing sliding door. Second, I forget to loop the drive chain around the axle and had to take the wheel off again. And third, I found that the carrier frame got in the way of the quick release fittings which hold the back wheel in place. And that whoever had put the carrier frame on had screwed it up so tight that I was not going to get it off without doing serious damage to the cross head screws, if at all. Perhaps a wheeze to encourage me to use a shop rather than attempt DIY. Hopefully I have got the wheel done up tightly enough - with there being some, if not much, comfort in gravity working in the right direction.

Went up and down the road OK. Beating gone, brakes still braking and gears still changing.

Maybe we are in business.

So now time to check with Cortana. Big Internet footprint for Nutrak Mileater tyres, including the claims: 'the Mileater is the ultimate all weather, heavy duty commute and touring tyre. 1.2mm Beltguard puncture breaker running through full tread width. Side reflective stripes greatly increase side visibility at night. Extra thick sidewall increases resistance to cuts and scrapes. 33 tpi casing is lighter and more suppple than Nutrak's standard range'. Maybe it will do for my ten miles a day. Young's run down to reference 2 below, seemingly a serious cycle stuff distributor.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/08/heat-haze.html.

Reference 2: https://www.madison.co.uk/. The people in up north Milton Keynes.

Reference 3: https://fudgescyclestore.com/. The people here in Epsom.