On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:37:41 -0700 (PDT), JennyB
<
[email protected]> wrote:
>On Mar 27, 7:58 pm, [email protected] wrote:
>
>> Fiddling butt-ended inner-tubes into place could require a tire horn
>> and a tire mouse, right column:
>> http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/morley/12.jpg
>>
>That's not something I'd like to try by the roadside, but I'm thinking
>that butt-ended tubes might be useful with clincher tyres for utility
>cyclists and tourists.
Dear Jenny,
Other people hoped that butt-ended tubes would make tire repair
easier, but butt-ended tubes vanished because they weren't really
easier to replace and produced poor results.
With a heavily loaded touring bicycle or an even heavier motorcycle,
you're either crouching next to the beast, trying to work on the tire
through the frame and hoping that it doesn't fall over (or onto you)
from the center-stand, or else you're trying to do the same thing with
the beast lying on its side, which is still awkward.
It's always easier to work on the tire out of the frame. We just
shrink from the task of getting it in and out.
Early motorcycles show why butt-ended tubes seemed attractive. You had
to get the wheel out from the chain and pedals on one side, a huge
drive-belt on the engine side, and plenty of frame and fenders.
The cheerful orange paint, tidy white tires, and trailing center-stand
can't disguise the horrors of pulling this rear wheel:
http://www.asl-testsite.co.uk/motors/normal/Flying_Merkel-Model-V-1911.jpg
Who can be blamed for wanting a magic flat-fix method that skipped the
part where you pulled that rear wheel by the side of the road in the
rain, fixed it, and then reinstalled the wheel?
But butt-ended tubes vanished because fiddling them into place with
the wheel in the frame is actually more trouble than removing and
reinstalling the wheel. (Butt-ended tubes also tended to produce a
tire with a flat spot or a lump.)
There's no magic method for fixing flats. It turns out to be faster
and easier to work on the wheel alone. You save more time and trouble
by working on just the wheel than you spend getting it in and out of
the frame.
Trials riders like Gordon Jennings could change a rear motorcycle tire
in well under six minutes back in the 1950s, stop and go in the mud,
on 250-pound machines like this, using steel tire levers eight inches
long:
http://www.trialscentral.com/forums/uploads/post-26-1136539265.jpg
The "quick" release levers welded to the axles eliminated wrenches and
the air bottle slanting back above the gear case had a hose long
enough to reach either tire.
Jennings and his rivals had to fight the fender, brake rod,
brake-stay, brake-drum, heavy chain, chain guard, through-axle, a
collar fitting or two on the inside, and adjusters on the outside,
plus a wheel and tire that weighed more than a modern bicycle.
But it was still faster and easier than working on the same wheel in
the frame and trying to stuff a butt-ended tube into the tire.
Like a lot of clever schemes, the butt-ended inner tubes slowly
vanished because they didn't offer any real advantage in the field.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
