Check your pump!

Went out on my MTB this morning. When I was as far away from home as possible on the loop I had a flat tyre. Did the necessary and started pumping only to find that my 8year old Mountain Morph, which has endured been through all conditions, wasn’t pushing any air out :jurek:

Can’t remember the last time that I needed to use it….

Same happened to me, about half way round Cragg Quarry after climbing up from Lee. Late on so no one else about, basically I’d done all the climbing then got to push my bike back to the car.

Best ride ever.

This is the upside of being the one who lends his pump to others. You get to check it still works, and if it doesn’t you’re not the one left pushing. Win/win 🙂

Two today and a broken valve.Fortunately downhill to Seaham station for my ride home.I need some newer tyres and to brush up on my puncture repair skills.

Went tubeless last year… No problems for ages. Forget the last time I had to use my pump.

First descent at a bike park in the Pyrenees the other week and I ripped the sidewall…. Milk everywhere. Got my spare tube out (had been thinking for ages that I should just ditch the tube abs pump…) and pump like crazy only to find the tube had a small hole in it…

Now in Millau and now on my third and last tube. New tubes or new tyre?

Sweat had corroded the valve solid on mine when I last checked it 😕

Or get complacent and think “ah, I’ve been tubeless for years and don’t get flats any more” and leave the pump and tube at home because there are 2 co2 cartridges in the saddle bag.

Cue a slight loss of pressure that uses the first cartridge z nice and firm off we go.

A mile later (on the way to work) it’s all gone soft again. Aw cr@p -the old sealant that made the seal between the bead and rim has cracked and there’s no more nice liquid sealant to make a new one.

Great – 5 mile walk to work then.

Or you can discover that your pump works perfectly but that every time you unscrew it from the valve it removes the valve core! I had a CO2 cartridge so that solved that problem but all valve cores have now been loctited.

9 punctures in to a long CXer route..

Run out of patches.

No spare tube.

Dick.

Or you can discover that your pump works perfectly but that every time you unscrew it from the valve it removes the valve core

I had this on a ride a few years back – the worst thing was I’d only decided to add some air because the front was feeling a bit squirmy! SO ANNOYING!!!

The valve core unscrewing thing happened to me too. Solution was to tighten as much as possible and then put some oil from the chain on the outer threads. Allowed me to gently unscrew pump without unscrewing valve. Saved me from walking home.