That's A Lot of Bull

A friend knowing my interest in cycling gave me a wonderful present – an old-timey John Bull Repair Outfit.  A slender, rectangular tin box full of all the items necessary to fix an old time flat tire.

"For the man who wants the best"

 

There are handy instructions printed on the inside of the tin lid and some are rather quaint.  Like using an indelible pencil to mark the puncture with an L shape.  Or cleaning the area to be repaired with a wet match.  A wet match?  Being a non-smoker, the supply of matches in my house consists of a packet of paper matches that I know are Canadian since they advertise a cigarette named “Export Eh?”.

The French gives it away as being Canadian

Looking at this thoughtful gift reminded me of some of the flats that I’ve experienced during my cycling adventures.  Just a month ago both Roy and I developed flats which we attributed to riding our tires with 50 pounds of pressure on hot tarmac heated by 30C plus temperatures (90 plus).

These guys make fixing a flat look like fun

A few years ago, my faithful cycling companion had a tear in the sidewall of one of his tires and being the cheap guy he is, he refused to buy a new tire or even consider looking for a bike shop.  During our trip, I recall stopping four times to fix his flats and when on the last day of our trip, his tire went flat for the fifth time, I gave him my spare tube which if I wasn’t so cheap, I might have given to him earlier in the trip.

One of the five flats being repaired

Perhaps I should see if I can find John Bull tires.  On the back of the tin repair kit is a slogan that claims John Bull tires are so good that you probably won’t need the repair kit at all.