Yesterday morning wasn’t the best of starts back to work after a week away. Not only was it raining but my rear tyre seemed quite soft. Not only was it in need of a bit more air but, when I started pumping there was an ominous hissing and the tyre deflated completely. Oh, and did I mention that it was raining heavily?

I ended up driving to work and coming home mid-afternoon so that I’d have time to pop to the shops if my attempts to repair it ran into a lack of essential resources. It turned out that the rubber had perished round the point where the valve joins the inner tube so I decided a repair would be living on borrowed time; the tube already had a previous repair and the valve join is put under pressure when pumping up by hand. Fortunately I had a spare so I was able to replace it (and I need to remember to get a new spare!).

The hardest part turned out to be getting the back wheel off. It is a long time since I last had to attend to it and the bolts were pretty tight. In the end, brute force and persistence won through (although spraying some oil on the bolt and letting it work in may also have helped). This morning, everything looks okay. Time to give it the ride to work test and find out if it really measures up!