A little brazing before going downtown
The rear flat magnet on this machine found a michelin wire yesterday afternoon (and as a point of interest latex sealant doesn’t when the wire is embedded in the tire and continually poking at the tube. I got some lovely geysers of latex, but not so much in the plugging up the hole department) and my patience for the cruddy Zefal hpx-2 pump I had on the thing finally ran out (it inflates, but very slowly, and the valve seal leaks) and I decided to replace it (with a pump that was designed to be fit between two pump pegs, so I had to braze in a second pump peg first) when I got home that afternoon.
Well, I forgot by the time I got home, but when this morning came around I realized that I had naught but a fistful of co2 bottles to provide puff for the tire. So (since I had the rear wheel off anyway because I was replacing the flat magnets with Schwalbe G-Ones on the hope that they would be less magnetic) I took 15 minutes to sand a bit of paint off and braze that second pump post on. I still need to adjust the peg angle a little bit, as well as wirebrush away the gobs of flux that didn’t explode off when I dumped some water over the not-red-hot-but-still-pretty-toasty tube+peg+dropout, but no more hpx-2 and hopefully a pump that will be much less dramatic when the next flat happens.
Comments
Marathon Supremes don’t come narrow enough to fit onto this 650b bicycle, though. And they’re expensive, too, which makes them less attractive even if they did fit.
So they don’t. I’ve got 35mm (which is probably too narrow) but that’s 700C.
I’d expect they’re much of a muchness in price per mile; Schwalbe gives Marathon Supremes twice the durability rating of any of the G-One’s. I’ve just about got the mould bead off the rear tyre at around 1200 km. Still visible on the front tyre.
Non-dramatic pumps are a good thing! And right at the hub like that ought to make it less likely to crud up than I had initially supposed, looking at it.
I’ve had good results from Schwalbe Marathon Supremes (only flat so far was a tetrahedral chunk of glass perfectly point up on fresh tar) but admit there’s not much loose wire on the roads hereabouts. (LOTS of glass.) Duremes and Mondial haven’t had flats yet.