Artemisia wrote:
Hi all,

I'm getting ready to take Widders on his first big tour. We leave Friday.

Today I was practising the folding and unfolding and unmounting of the
trike, and noticed, as Sod's law would have it, that one of the wheels
was already flat. It hadn't been flat the last time I stored the bike, a
few days ago, and the bike is flaming new.

Upon examination, I found a small, almost invisible puncture in the
inner tube, opposite the valve. Checking the inside of the tyre, I found
that a small wooden thorn or splinter had clear gone through both tyre
and tube, at the same place. This is relatively comforting, as I feared
a repetition of the Flyzipper scenario - 11 exploding tubes with no
visible cause.

I have a replacement tube. But do I need to replace the tyre? I need to
know this fast as that would mean combing all of Paris to get the same
spec of tyre by this afternoon, since tomorrow is bank holiday and I'm
off before dawn on Friday.

Invest a couple of Euros into a simple patch kit and repair the tube.
Unless a tube is torn or has a really big hole, it is suitable for
repair. Properly applied, a glued patch will last for years.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful