Resolved but not Identified (Definitively at Least)

My John Galt problem from yesterday’spost is resolved for now but the question is yet unanswered.  As I promised I replaced the front tire and tube on my bike in hopes of resolving a nagging flat problem.  I’m pleased to report that after gassing the tire up with a 78-21-1 mixture of Nitrogen Oxygen and other trace gases respectively, the pressure held overnight and survived a brief exercise up and down the alley. I’m planning to make the first commute of 2012 tomorrow morning and I am cautiously optimistic that all will go well.

Yet John Galt’s anonymity remains.

You may think that the tire and tube definitively answer the flat question but I didn’t tell the whole story. There was an inclusion. 

Replacing the tire and tube on a 700c wheel is relatively simple but that doesn’t mean it is easy, especially when you’re not that good at it. The basic idea is to unseat (or remove) the tire from one side of the wheel, pull the tube out, put a new or repaired tube back into the tire, then put the loose side of the tire back into the wheel.  The problem is that the tire fits really, really tight into the wheel and it has to stretch beyond its natural diameter in order to get off and then on again.  I’m pretty sure that every time I have replaced a tube I, at some point in the process, have thought, “I’ll never get this thing off (or on) I don’t know why I think I can do any of my own bike repairs.”

There is typically quite a bit of jostling and cajoling, perhaps even negotiation and pleading.  Needless to say I typically don’t get the tire on or off on the first try.  Last night as I pried and twisted the tire I started to hear a rattle. It didn’t register right away but soon my efforts shifted from replacement to investigation.  I removed a semi-flexible band that conceals the spoke tightening bolts and rotated the wheel until finally something fell out.  I found the particle, examined it and found it to resemble a twisted shard of metal.

Eureka! You might think. Surely the twisted shard must be the offending agent that claimed so many good tubes. But I can’t.

As you have likely recognized two variables were changed in this tires tale.  I can’t conclude in favor of the tire or the shard because both were changed at once.  If I was conducting an experiment I would be stoned or burned at the stake by an angry hoard of scientists for my lack of variable control or perhaps if my life was spared I’d likely be forced to wear a scarlet V as a constant reminder for my crime against science.

Fortunately I just want to ride my bike and my repair isn’t going up against peer review.