Friday, 18 April 2014

YouTube and Bike Maintenance

I might be good in the garden and OK with some DIY but when it comes to anything mechanical, I'm pretty much lost. So when Alison's bike had a puncture on the back tyre, I was not looking forward to taking off the wheel. But YouTube was a great help in not only using the levers to take off the tyre (I wondered what those hooks were on the end of the levers - connecting to a spoke eases the whole process).

And then disconnecting the wheel from the chain and gears was surprisingly straightforward in the end. The inner tube was so old it needed replacing, but the new one from Halfords had a Presto valve and my foot pump only connects to a Schrader valve. A new pump was only £5 but even then, once I had the wheel back on (how I managed that I do not know), could I get the tyre pumped up? YouTube came into it's own again, the Presto valve has a little brass bit at the top and this needs to be unscrewed first. Hey Presto (get it?) and the tyre inflated in no time. All the bike needs now is a really good clean. But I will leave that to it's owner.

And a hint on YouTube "Lefty Loosy - Righty Tighty". When the nuts wont go back on the axle of a 24 year old bike, this really helps.

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