J
JacksonCognac
Guest
It's carnival season down here in new orleans, which means the city is a mess and motorbikin is the best way to get around town. Rolling back from a parade a couple nights ago I lost power a couple blocks away from my place. Turns out my throttle handle broke where the line clips into the plastic. Luckily we had a junker moped from the 70's in our back yard so I was able to pull off that handle the next day... I actually like the new handle more so it was a pretty cool upgrade. There are some lights and stuff on the moped I might be able to use too.
Anyhow so the next day I take a good sized trip out to the Quarter. Hung out at Harrah's and Bourbon street for a bit - just taking in the craziness. I was rollin back home, probably a good 5 miles out when suddenly my rear tire started drifting out. You probably know the feeling - I got a flat and it was a bad one - no way I could bike that sucker home - motor powered or pedal powered. Well I remember a thread on here about flats and Large Filipino said something about stuffing your tire with dirt and leaves.
Unfortunately all I had on me at the time in terms of tools was a pocket knife and an adjustable wrench and some duct tape (which was stupid - usually I keep a screw driver with me too and I should probably carry a lot more). I was able to get the wheel off using the knife as a screw driver (for the coaster break attachment) and was by a park that had a lot of dirt and leaves so I figured that I would give that method a shot.
Well it was probably around 8 pm or so and while I'm sitting on the sidewalk covered in sweat dirt and leaves trying to fix my flat and stupid #$%holes were asking me if such and such parade was running and if I had any cigarettes. I was like "uh, I am a little busy why dont you bother someone else?"
lol (actually I answered their questions but it's hard to not get a little hot under the collar in that situation)
So how many leaves does it take to fix a flat you may ask? Well I never quite figured that one out but I'm pretty sure the answer is a ****load. I spent a good half hour trying to cram dirt and leaves into the wheel and putting it back together - once I managed to do that I realized that I didn't have nearly enough leaves in there for it to work and trying to take the tire back off enough to put more was impossible with the tools I had on hand (he tire was full enough to make it difficult to take the tire off, but not full enough to be ridable).
So I put the wheel back on and walked her home. Took me a good 2 hours with a break in there. It sucked but you know, thats part of ridin around on a motorized bike. You gotta be ready for **** to fall off and flat tires and anything else that can happen on the road. I got my bike home ate some of the roast I had slow cookin in a crock pot for the better part of 9 hours (delicious) chugged a few beers and got to work overhaulin my bike. I'm gonna get a can of that fix a flat or mount an air pump and spare tube or SOMETHING because walkin that iron horse home is somewhat demoralizing (and back breaking).
So whats the moral of the story? I dunno I guess being more prepared has something to do with it but another part is sometimes you gotta be willing to sweat and bleed a bit. Motorized biking is a lot of fun and half the fun is dealing with whatever problem you are having. I joke with my friends that at any given moment my bike is 2 screw turns away from falling apart. Personally I like it like that - I like working on the bike and keeping it running. I would have LOVED to get the leaf trick to work but even when it didn't work I just chalked it up as a learning experience. Next time it will be better.
Hopefully my rambling was semi-interesting or entertaining. I just felt like writing about my biking experiences... and all this talk of biking makes me want to head out on a ride now.
Anyhow so the next day I take a good sized trip out to the Quarter. Hung out at Harrah's and Bourbon street for a bit - just taking in the craziness. I was rollin back home, probably a good 5 miles out when suddenly my rear tire started drifting out. You probably know the feeling - I got a flat and it was a bad one - no way I could bike that sucker home - motor powered or pedal powered. Well I remember a thread on here about flats and Large Filipino said something about stuffing your tire with dirt and leaves.
Unfortunately all I had on me at the time in terms of tools was a pocket knife and an adjustable wrench and some duct tape (which was stupid - usually I keep a screw driver with me too and I should probably carry a lot more). I was able to get the wheel off using the knife as a screw driver (for the coaster break attachment) and was by a park that had a lot of dirt and leaves so I figured that I would give that method a shot.
Well it was probably around 8 pm or so and while I'm sitting on the sidewalk covered in sweat dirt and leaves trying to fix my flat and stupid #$%holes were asking me if such and such parade was running and if I had any cigarettes. I was like "uh, I am a little busy why dont you bother someone else?"
lol (actually I answered their questions but it's hard to not get a little hot under the collar in that situation) So how many leaves does it take to fix a flat you may ask? Well I never quite figured that one out but I'm pretty sure the answer is a ****load. I spent a good half hour trying to cram dirt and leaves into the wheel and putting it back together - once I managed to do that I realized that I didn't have nearly enough leaves in there for it to work and trying to take the tire back off enough to put more was impossible with the tools I had on hand (he tire was full enough to make it difficult to take the tire off, but not full enough to be ridable).
So I put the wheel back on and walked her home. Took me a good 2 hours with a break in there. It sucked but you know, thats part of ridin around on a motorized bike. You gotta be ready for **** to fall off and flat tires and anything else that can happen on the road. I got my bike home ate some of the roast I had slow cookin in a crock pot for the better part of 9 hours (delicious) chugged a few beers and got to work overhaulin my bike. I'm gonna get a can of that fix a flat or mount an air pump and spare tube or SOMETHING because walkin that iron horse home is somewhat demoralizing (and back breaking
). So whats the moral of the story? I dunno I guess being more prepared has something to do with it but another part is sometimes you gotta be willing to sweat and bleed a bit. Motorized biking is a lot of fun and half the fun is dealing with whatever problem you are having. I joke with my friends that at any given moment my bike is 2 screw turns away from falling apart. Personally I like it like that - I like working on the bike and keeping it running. I would have LOVED to get the leaf trick to work but even when it didn't work I just chalked it up as a learning experience. Next time it will be better.
Hopefully my rambling was semi-interesting or entertaining. I just felt like writing about my biking experiences... and all this talk of biking makes me want to head out on a ride now.
