i'll try to keep this short and to the point because it is a longish story.
a friend of mine who has a medical condition that affects his eyes recently bestowed his mountain bike upon me. soon after he bought it his eyes got real bad and it wasn't safe for him to be riding that thing around. mind you this was like 10 years ago. anyway his peripheral vision is good, but his straight ahead vision is not. he supposed he could keep the bike and ride around with his head cocked to one side to make use of his peripherals but decided that that would look too funny. and still was a little dangerous.
the bike was in good condition for being chained up in a basement for a decade. the tires needed air, but for the most part it looked good enough to get me to work and back. heres where the fun begins...
i took it home and pumped the tires up. only the front held air. i noticed that the whitewall area of the tires seemed to be deteriorated and left this dusty, grainy stuff on my hands when i touched it. this was a clear warning sign that these babies were no good. i disregarded the sign.
went to sports authority and bought 2 tire tubes. went back to return them after i found out they didn't fit my bike. my bike has a presta air valve. i bought schrader valved tires. oops.
took the cash and went to mccully bike and got the right ones. fitted my back tire after watching some online demos. felt like a champ and ready to ride to UH to play basketball that week.
halfway to UH on my virgin bike mission, pssssssssssshhhhhhhh. the back went flat. had to walk it. wife picked me up.
back to mccully for an outer tire. i still had the second tube at home since the front tire held up so far. this was a second clear warning that the front tire was in danger of breaking due to old fartness. again i disregard the warning.
redo the back tire and it looks good for another ride to UH the next week (today).
made it all the way to UH and then pssssssssssshhhhhhhh... front tire deflation while turning left at semi-high speed... whoa... crash! some old guy saw the whole thing. make A. phoned the wifey who said, "walk it to the bike shop and take care of it." yes ma'am.
back to mccully for a matching front tire and tube. took a while to find what i thought was the exact tire i bought last time so the bike would look alright with matching tires. get to the register and realize the tube vs tire sizes don't match up. back to the tire section for some pro help. yada yada yada, he recommends a different tire appropriate to the size tube i have. which means my back tire has the wrong size tube inside. oops.
so now i got a skinny smooth front tire and a big knobby back tire. theyre made by the same company but theres this loud/atrocious labeling on them, which draws attention to the fact that theyre mismatched.
lesson: dont act chinese (even if your last name is chang) when it comes to doing things right the first time. especially if you have issues about matching bike tires.
silver lining: i'm pretty good at changing tires now.
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