I've had many flats, but this was a first for me. Somehow I managed to break my valve stem. It happened on my commute home from work. Sitting in traffic on 5th street in Coralville, I attempted a track stand. Well, I suck at track stands and somehow managed to hit my valve stem with my heel. The next thing I hear is a pssssssssssssssst and I'm stuck with a flat tire.Anyway, I got to thinking. It might be cool if the bike library could give a monthly bike seminar or something. The first one could be "How to fix a flat." We could even try to partner with one of the local bike shops. They could bring in tubes, patches, pumps etc to sell or just demo to the attendees. I can't think of a topic for the next seminar, but I'm sure someone could come up with something.
What do you think?
9 comments:
That sounds like a grand idea, Scott. I'd be hip to helping out later in the Fall & Winter.
As for your stem, an overly long stem with a presta/valve adapter _and_ a big ol' die schrader cap certainly aided in the extra surface area & leverage needed to break your stem more easily!
It didn't post my website, hmm.
This is Michael of The Broken Spoke by the way.
All right, glad to hear you're interested.
Yeah, I kinda figured the long stem and die probably had something to do with the flat. My new tube has a short stem, but I had to put the dice back on. If I knock it off again, I'll go back to the boring old regular plastic cap. :)
Cool idea Scott! I would definitely attend.
Some other topics off the top of my head are:
- general tune-ups
- proper sizing and fit
- gear alignment (for us unhip souls still using gears)
I think it's a great idea, Scott. I know people have talked about doing more education-related projects before, but it's been tough to get the resources (volunteer time, etc) together to pull it off. Now's a great time to get something started, in my opinion. Do you want to teach/lead this "fix-a-flat" workshop?
I could, but ideally I'd like to have Michael from the Broken Spoke teach/lead the workshop. I'll try to talk with Michael and come up with a tentative game plan, date, etc. Once I have some sort of plan I will present it to Del, Brian, etc and see if it is something we can do.
Cool, Scott! I think the best way to make something happen is just take it on :-) Let me know if there's something I can do to help.
How about a frame fabrication workshop? Just kidding. I think the workshops are a great idea though. Flat fixing and general drivetrain maintenance would be great places to start I think.
I can see a lot of people being interested in this. Maybe we could post info on kiosks (I know, more waste). The seminars would likely go off topic, though.
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