bike help please!!
bugger. so i got up early this morning to go for a little gentle ride (race on tonight so no big hills or anything).
But i was trying to pump my tyres and the pump connector keeps shooting off after a couple of pumps. What am I doing wrong?? I am doing what the instructions say - removing the plastic cover, unscrewing the metal valve bit, putting the pump head on all the way and then locking the lever. then i would pump once or twice and it would shoot off. grrrr. silly bikes. i am sure it is something completely basic but I can't get it! this happened on both tyres... one still attached to the bike and one laying on the floor.
pleassssee?
anyway - i am not going for a ride now (that'll learn it :) and so will walk in to work and 'taper' for this evenings 5.6k JP Morgan cup.
WAIT!! I tried again just before I went to work and tried not pushing the pump head all the way down and that seems to have worked... crisis averted :) but i still didn't do my ride :(
posted by Ellie80 @ 5:48 am
12 Comments:
Weird. I have a lot of pump problems too. What was probably happening is that you were pumping and the pressure was baking up into the tube and not going into the tire (equals very high pressure by the second full pump!). If this happens again put one pump worth of pressure in and then jiggle the connector a bit. You should see the pressure guage change once the air pressure starts flowing into the tire. This helps me. Or you might either not be loosening the metal valve bit enough or too much.
This make any sense?
Enjoy the race!
Jodi
Why are you always having to pump up your tyres????
I haven't touched mine since I bought my bike.
wt
Hello! the guys in the shop and the coach told me you should be pumping them up a couple of times a week or even before each ride. Mine are supposed to be 120psi and after one or two rides they tend to be around 60-80. i thought that was quite normal? i got one of those pumps that tell you what the pressure is cause i wouldn't have a clue just by pressing!
Pumptastic!
No idea on pumps.
Good luck tonight !
Have a great run tonight Ellie. Guess it will be pretty crowded out there, you should go for a walk at lunchtime and brush up on your argy bargy technique.
Maybe you have a different type of valve stem than I am thinking of but I don't understand why you are "unscrewing the metal valve bit..." All you need to do is take off the black plastic cover.
hehe - yes i've done my research - it is a presta valve not a schrader one - which means I have to unscrew it a little before pumping it up... maybe i did it not enough or too far...
It's a royal pain in the ass.
I'm not sure your tubes should be deflating that easily as well, do you have a slow puncture? You may have to take the tyre (British spelling) off and check for any foreign objects.
I would firstly make sure that you are unscrewing the top of the valve on the tyre enough as sometimes this can be the cause. Anyway, I get the same sort of issue when inflating my inner tubes, to which I attribute to buying a cheap and nasty floor pump off ebay.
I have mastered the art of standing on one leg, using the big toe on my other leg to secure the valve whilst I pump away and it works like a charm...not ideal though.
yep - you're right ellie. You should check tyre pressure each week. They won't actually go down that much, but by the time you unscrew the valve, press it once of twice to make sure it's sitting "free", and then connect the pump so you can see the pressure, it will have dropped a little. Most likely it will actually be around 90-100 before you started fiddling :)
The other thing that could have been happening with the pump is that you had the lever in the wrong position - i.e. it might have been in the lock position when you were trying to attach it, and the flicking it to the unlock position when you tried to pump?
More likely however, the little presta valve may not have been sitting free - after you unscrew it, make sure you tap it once or twice (it will release air in a burst) to make sure it's going to let the air in. If it's just been unscrewed without tapping it, the pressure you build up in the pump head will blow it back off again.
Have a great run!
I just go to a servo and put the thingee on the other thingee and press the silver thingee till the tyre feels hard....
There you have my complete knowledge on the subject.
Hope the run went well ;-)
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