by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Many who are taking up cycling now, as a means of keeping fit but primarily as a means of getting from A to B cheaply, often, while they may have learned how to ride a bike have never gotten to grips with the nitty gritty of doing any repairs, not even fixing a puncture. The one thing you do not want to do it to go and take the bike for repair for just a puncture; it will cost you more than a new inner tube. So DIY is called for.
There are many, however, who do not have the faintest idea of how to actually fix a puncture and many seem to have more money than sense when they, because of a puncture, discard the bicycle and buy a new one rather than learning how to fix it.
Maybe some also think it beneath them to work on a bicycle and get dirt, oil and grease on their fingers in this way. Something that might stain their fingers or a couple of days.
A new inner tube for a bicycle costs you probably – in the UK – the equivalent of $8 while having someone fix it could cost you four times that much. The job is, however, so simple if you don't want to fix and just replace. Fixing is a little more time consuming but much cheaper.
The Internet is full of instructions regarding this task and thus I am not about to reinvent the wheel by going through it step by step.
A good idea, if you do take up cycling, is to get a small booklet, of one kind or the other, that tells you how to do the basic tasks. In some places those booklets are given away free even. Have a look at them and then practice. It is NOT difficult and could, nay will, save you lots of money.
On the move have a spare inner tube or two with you, and a pump, obviously, so you can quickly fix a puncture by changing the tube and then, when back home, repair the actual damaged tube.
RoSPA in the UK has put our a Bicycle Owner's Handbook which, on page 18 and 19, tells you how to fix a puncture. And that is just one of the things that it teaches you.
Free books like those are worth their weight in gold for anyone taking up cycling and you, more than likely, can even download them from the Web.
Like with a car, a well-maintained bicycle will be reliable and will last, and a bicycle, well-maintained and looked after, will, probably, last much, much longer than any car.
© 2010
