Monthly Archives: May 2016

Flats and Pumps

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I had a ton of flats recently.  Both racing and training.  That is the way it has always seemed to go my whole life.  I won’t flat for ages, the I’ll flat a bunch in a row.  It doesn’t make sense.

I think the tubes and tubular tires aren’t made as well as they used to be.  For sure the tubes. You can get a batch of bad tubes and flat continually until you realize they are shit.

I’m hoping tubular tires are different.  I pretty much only race on Vittoria sewups.  The reason for this is that I know them well and thus, predictable.  Especially in the rain.

But the last year I’ve had a few really bad Vittorias.  I got a bunch of cyclocross tires that all had bad valve stems. Not really bad valve stems, but where they attached to the tubes, was flawed. Then at Joe Martin, the same thing.  A brand new Vittoria flatted in the final corner of a long road race and the only thing the matter with it was that it was leaking air at the valve stem. That is unacceptable.

I’ve already written a post on floor pumps.  It is easy to get frustrated with floor pumps.  Just when you think you have a good one, it isn’t.  I good floor pump is a very important part of the happiness of cycling, in my opinion.

I need to get another hand pump.  A real frame pump.  Both Bill and my brother carry full size frame pumps and when I flat, and use them, I always think to myself that I need to get a nice frame pump.  I’m not even sure who makes them anymore.

I used to have some awesome Silca pumps, sometimes painted to match my frame, by Joe Bell.  I haven’t had a good Silca pump for a long time.  I had a pretty good Zefal frame pump, but it lacked the nostalgia of my Silcas.

Anyway, I hope I’ve gotten this streak of flats out of my system.  I’m going to be doing some MTB racing and such, and flatting with latex in your tires is a mess.  Way worse than changing a tube on the road.

This is a photo of Alan McCormick's Schwinn Paramount. We had matching Silca pumps painted with the frames. I wonder how many of those are around anymore.

This is a photo of Alan McCormick’s Schwinn Paramount. We had matching Silca pumps painted with the frames. I wonder how many of those are around anymore?

A SIlca frame pump with a steel campy head is about the best you can still do. Even thought the pumps are just plastic, they work great.

A SIlca frame pump with a steel campy head is about the best you can still do. Even thought the pumps are just plastic, they work great.

Tucker gets into pretty weird positions when he is sleeping.

Tucker gets into pretty weird positions when he is sleeping.

 

 

 

One Year Since Bromont

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

I feel a little sad because I failed to remember that Bromont has been gone for over a year now. It was May 3rd, last year, and the time has seemed to pass so quickly.  I guess I should feel alright about it, because I’m not dwelling on missing him so much.  That is a good thing.

I know having Tucker for the past 3 months has been a big part of that.  Tucker isn’t a replacement for Bromont, he’s his own guy, but he is super fun to be around.

Travelling with a dog is challenging at races sometimes.  But Tucker is a good traveller.  He is nearly past his chewing stage, and didn’t do too much damage.

I think that it would have been great if Bromont and Tucker had known each other.  There are completely different, personality-wise, but for some reason, that is probably more important to my mindset than for any other reason, it seems like it would be better if there was a connection, or continuity between them.  Whatever, it didn’t happen, so it is what it is.

Tucker likes to sleep more than Bromont.  That is saying something because Bromont really liked to sleep.  As soon as Tucker gets into a car, especially the diesel van, he snoozes.  And he can stay in bed for 9 hours without any problem.  That is super good for race travelling.  When Bromont was his age, he got up with the sun and wanted to go out to check on the birds.  That was really bad at races.

Tucker is just starting to get “birdy” now.  The women we got him from said he was going to be a very birdy dog.  I didn’t know what that meant, still don’t, but have a better idea of it now than I did a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, life goes on.  I still miss Bromont, as I do all the dogs I’ve have the pleasure of living with.  Bromont was special.  I’m hoping he’s running around somewhere in doggy heaven.

Bromont loved to run more than just about anything else.

Bromont loved to run more than just about anything else.