On The Problems With Carbon Dioxide

I feel a little like a pro cyclist lately. Let me explain, a friend of mine was telling me, the higher up you get in the world of cycling, the more often you change teams. Yes sir, I am back in the job market, sorry to say, but the current job is too stressful. I think this is a function of entrepreneurs, they can start a business but cannot listen to the advice of others. Anyway enough of head banging.

So I have been horribly busy with work lately and haven't had a chance to post recently but here are some updates.

Friday the 13'th I rode to work, it was very nice, logged 79km and then went grocery shopping. Saturday Thi and I did a ride around Mississauga, ended up logging 110km. Later that day Thi and I sat around and drank a lot of beer while I changed the cassette on his Zipp wheel set, he was a 12-27, now an 11-28. (Actually I now know I'm an old fart, a lot of beer, was two bottles, actually we mostly sat around and talked, cycling, politics, economics, all sorts of random things.)

I was on call on Sunday so I stayed home. I did laundry, I made pasta, I swapped out tyres on Jordan, she's got Vittoria Open Corsa EVO CX now, she had Vredestein Fortezza Tricomps. Now in theory the Vredesteins are slower and heavier, they are a bigger pain to change than the Vittoria's, but, the Vredesteins almost never puncture roadside. The Vittoria's, well I found a staple in the on my very first ride after the change, I got to work. Didn't check through the day and when I went to go home, noticed my back tyre was flat. A road side change in the office!

So Monday afternoon, in the comfort of my office, 25km from home I changed a tyre, luckily it was a Vittoria so it was not a total war to get the thing off my wheel, unluckily it was a Vittoria so all it took was a rusty staple to puncture. Sigh. The first Carbon Dioxide cartridge did not discharge properly and got my tyre to about 40 psi, I need 100 psi on a road bike tyre. The second cartridge was even worse, down to 20 psi. I was beginning to loose faith in my pump. The third cartridge worked, about 80psi, enough to limp home.

I got home, put Jordan on the stand, had dinner with Lesley and went back downstairs to look at the tyres, maybe there would be a thumb tack?

When I got down to Jordan I found the front tyre to be in perfect condition and the back tyre was clearly, using my thumb and forefinger test, down to between 20 and 40 psi. I took the tube and tyre out and gave a very careful inspection of everything, I put the tyre and tube back and reinflated to 120psi. About a half hour later I rechecked, 100 psi. Yet another tube later and I was in business. The suspect tube I inflated on the floor until it was about six feet on it's side, by this morning, it was nearly flat, but no evidence of a leak. My pet theory, some dirt wedged into the valve from my pump and air was escaping from whence it came. So I am going to throw in the towel, I am completely fed up with the carbon dioxide cartridges, I cannot get to a good air pressure and all to often end up loosing a tube to the vagaries of the pump. I won't use a hand pump, I'm sorry, I am not good at masturbating in public (ever see a person use a hand pump? 'Nugh said.) Instead I will get a bottle cage mounted mini floor pump, obviously the ideal, well the ideal is a support car with spare wheels on the roof, but given that I am not riding Le Tour, I guess this is probably the best I can arrange, hey it beats walking home, or shudder, driving!