On an embarrassing bike reassembly

I realised today that I hadn't reassembled Leonardo since coming home last August. As the Metropolitan Challenge is next weekend, I felt the long weekend was the time to do it. It went fairly smoothly until I began to reinflate the front tire. I was just about finished when I saw with horror that the tire hadn't been properly aligned with the tube and rim. There was an ominous bulge. I desperately tried to remove the pump and release the valve, but a loud BANG! put an end to hopes of saving the day.

Thankfully, the blow-out didn't damage the tire. The tube, on the other hand, had a six inch long rent in it.  There are worse places to have a blow-out than one's home and I dug through my bike bits bin in search of a suitable replacement inner tube. I was surprised not to find one of the appropriate size. I then looked at the spare tube in my bike repair bag. It looked like it might fit. However, when I examined it more closely, the valve stem was a funny angle and then came off the tube as I handled it. My theory is that it had been battered from being too long in a bag at the bottom of my backpack.

I therefore walked a few blocks to the nearest bike shop for several replacement inner tubes of the larger calibre Leonardo uses. On my return, I put in the new inner tube, this time doing the "pinchy, pinchy" routine prior to full inflation on both the front and the rear tires. I also put a good spare tube into my bike repair bag.