My last PMC post involved me learning how to change the tire which was key, of course. But I didn’t quite inflate it all the way which is less than optimal. When I purchased this road bike from Anderson Bicycles in Quincy , Paul the owner talked a lot about a lot of things, and not wanting to appear lame (which in some ways was, well, lame) I didn’t ask  a lot of questions. One thing he talked about was Presta Valves. Right, I nodded sagely, wondering what exactly a Presta Valve was.

When I have gone on big hikes, there are always these dudes (and they are nearly always dudes) who talk about their gear. Part of me finds this interesting as it is just another mode of geekdom which I can appreciate and part of me finds this amusing. I have generally somewhat inferior gear and still arrived more or less alive at the same hut up there in the White Mountains and besides folks used to do the same hikes without the gear Back in the Day. So, I will admit when the gear talk emerged when I was buying this for me fancy bicycle, my eyes started to glaze over.

But as usual, I digress. Anyway, when I took the bike tube out of the box to put it on the rim, there was this little pointy valve. And it all came back to me. Voila! The Presta Valve! By Trial and Error, I did manage to pump the tire up with the hand pump though. Sort of. Next time I rode the bike, the rear tire was not firm enough and I could feel the drag. So I thought it was once again time to increase my knowledge base. And so once again I turned to YouTube and the iPad and once again, I found what I was looking for. I suppose that if you consider the cost of the iPad versus a bike class, I am not exactly coming out ahead, but of course I am not using the iPad only for bike stuff.