Wednesday, May 06, 2009

tire woes

so believe it or not i got *two* flats at the track this weekend.  one on saturday (front wheel), one on sunday (rear wheel).  i don't really know how that happens, considering we are on a track, not biking through west oakland.

anyway, major bummer cause those are my tubulars.  and i don't really have clincher wheels.  for some reason, i sold those clincher wheels i won during goldsprints, and now i am really re-thinking that sell.  i figured: fred made me these awesome tied and soldered wheels on some old matrix rims, and that was enough to have. and now a year later, i get two flats and am rethinking that sell. where did that $300 go anyway? into the abyss of my bank account.

how often do you replace those things anyway?  i rode on them a year-- was i due for a flat?  or was i short changed with some extra tread wanting get worn away.  typically, i like to run my tires right down to the casing - ask brian peterson.  some call that stupid, some call that economical.

speaking of economical, i begged steve pelaez for his old tires.  and steve owes me because: a) he didn't beat kieran in the keirin, and b) he always eats my food at races.  so he told me he is bringing his old tires for me friday night.  then i thought about gluing them....

man, lets talk about gluing tubulars.  i love fucking around with my bike and messing up everything up and creating a bigger problem than i started with.  actually, i am the queen of tinkering things into worse shape... but tubulars kind of scare me to death to fuck up...  i admit i have little sense when in comes to mechanics, but i have sense enough not to try gluing tires by myself.  i even watched the velonews demo- and decided i shouldn't mess around.  

so fred has glued my tires before.  but then someone told me they weren't on enough.  plus, i haven't hung out with fred since mid-march, so i don't think it is really appropriate to ask him to glue my tires.  and when i took one to the bike shop to glue last year, it was way more money than i had expected... and if i take two... yikes.  i don't even want to think about it.  at least i have some free used tires.  what i really need is a boyfriend to glue my tires-- woe is me!

so as i am contemplating my tire dilemma and bumming out i don't have a boyfriend to glue my tires... i figured: dude, beth bikes! is famous.  people should want to glue my tires!  gluing my tires totally builds street cred.  trust me. if i ask, i will have a waiting list of people to glue my tires.

unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

i put a nice request on facebook:  "okay, who wants to glue pelaez's old tires on my wheels? i make an excellent lasagna (or other request), which is at least worth the astounding cost of getting a shop to do that."

and you know what kind of response i get?  crap.  nada.  well someone wrote me some crappy haiku poem that had nothing to do with my request.  i thought, maybe, if i write a cool haiku poem back, someone will be motivated to help a girl out.  so i write:

glue, tubulars, fun
three layer lasagna- YUM
i need mastik one

but, unfortunately, my poem was no good.  

so, my lovely blog readers....if you want to glue my tires, i will be very thankful. i am very nice.  and i make a very good lasagna. (i can even provide you references for that if you don't believe me.)  

and if you live in britain, no need to reply.  i don't think the shipping is really worth it. and plus, the lasagna isn't good frozen from air mail. 

4 comments:

place_holder said...

flats... time to kiss a goat.

dino dante

beth bikes! said...

old skool!

that was clutch, twinkie.

yeah, 2007-- when blogging was *way* more fun.

Convenience said...

One flat, two flats — YIKES!
Remembered fiance — PSYCHED!
Both tires glued — BETH BIKES!

Itinerant Rick said...

Hey Beth,

I would glue your tires, but the logistics are a bit painful, esp. with Kern right around the corner.

If you are into sewing and all, I have stuff for fixing tubulars. Bit of a pain, but better than tossing a perfectly good tire. Or if you prefer you can send it here and they will put in a new tube and sew it back together for something like $20/tire.