When I was a teenager there was a how-to book that perfectly fit in with the Keep On Truckin' age in which I lived. It was called "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot."
I was made for this book. I both had a Volkswagon Bug, and was a Compleat Idiot (spelled that way by the author).
This book had a huge stylistic influence on me. When I list those who've made an impression on my thinking, and on my writing style, I'd have to list John Muir. Both of them. Another John Muir wrote the book I reference above.
Whenever I write anything "how-to" there's a little man running around inside my skull that only utters one phrase: "For the Compleat Idiot." If I write something entitled "Adjusting Derailleurs," or "Race Fueling." he pipes in with, "For the Compleat Idiot." It's very hard to me to write anything "straight." Everything comes out For the Compleat Idiot.
Fortunately, most of my regular readers get the joke: Everything's written from one Compleat Idiot to another. Nobody's really an expert at anything. Anything written by anybody in how-to fashion is just somebody's best guess delivered to somebody else who knows perhaps just a little less than the person delivering the advice.
Furthermore, all advice has to be considered in context, and the context is—always—that nothing is that important. Even urgent stuff is not that important. Important stuff doesn't revolve around how many foot-pounds your crank is tightened down. Important stuff is, are you healthy? Are you happy?
So. Realizing that in the great scheme of things it isn't all that important whether or not you get a flat tire during a race, I shall list below some things that you might consider adding to your to-do list before you pack up and travel to an event. Specifically, these are things that may keep your wheels in one piece. Wheels are the source of a lot of race DNFs, and many or most of these DNFs are needless. Truly important info or not, here goes...
VALVE STEMS
On at least two occasions I've experienced slow leaks that were not slow leaks at all, upon inspection. I thought they were slow leaks—I thought I'd run over something sharp—and in both cases this resulted in my changing the tires, just to subsequently discover that the leaks were in my valve stem or valve core. All racing bikes nowadays come with presta valves (like those shown in the photos) which—unlike Schrader valves, that kind that comes on your car's tires—are made in two types. On has the valve core built into the valve (above). The other has the core as a separate piece which threads into the valve (below right).
There is no advantage one to the other, except if you need to use the kind of valve extender which you thread into the valve. This isn't the kind that threads onto the core, but which replaces the core. You can only use this with the sort of valve if you have a removable valve core. I like this kind of extender, by the way, for reasons outlined below. But if you use a long-valve tube or tire for your deep-dish rim you might not need an extender (most notable exceptions are for a really deep rim, like a Hed Deep).
You can have two problems with valve stems. First, sometimes the core isn't threaded into the valve stem tight enough at the factory. So, when I race, I make sure my race wheels have the core reasonably tight. There is a kind of spoke wrench that is shaped like a silver dollar, with slots around its perimeter in different gauge sizes. One of the slots—the largest as I recall—is 11-gauge. I've never seen an 11-gauge spoke, but it just so happens this is the exact diameter you need to engage the flats on the valve core. But be careful not to just start tightening the thing down, because you'll peel the valve right out of the tube. You've got to grab the valve with, say, a pair of pliers to keep it from spinning. This means two wrenches, one to grab the valve shaft, one to grab the core. (If you don't have that spoke wrench I'm talking about, a pair of mini-sized needlenose Vise Grips works nicely. Don't tighten it too much, just snug. That'll stop any chance of a slow leak here.
The other place you can sometimes spring a leak is in the valve itself, if you don't screw it down after filling up your tire. This is especially likely to happen if you use tires that have any of that fix-a-flat stuff inside. Tufo tires used to have this—perhaps they still do. This stuff jams itself in the works of the valve, and if you don't tighten the valve down it'll leak. Why would you not tighten it down? If you've got a valve extender that just threads over the valve—not the kind in which you rethread the core in the extender's end. If you have no access to the valve, you can't thread it down and, voila, you've got a slow leak out on the course and you assume, wrongly, that you've run over something sharp. This is why I prefer the valve extenders explained above. If you don't have one of these, at least use a valve extender where, after you inflate your tire, you can unscrew the valve extender and use the reverse side to thread down the valve.
TEFLON TAPE
There is one negative to the kind of replaceable-core valve extender I describe above. It can also be the scene of a slow leak. If you use one of these, place Teflon tape around the threads—both the threads of the extender as it screws into the valve, and the threads of the valve core as it screws into the extender. You don't need Teflon tape on the valve core as it screws into the valve (the way tubes and tubulars come from the factory). That joint seems always to be fine. It's when you put an extender in between the core and valve that problems arise.
NEWLY MOUNTED CLINCHER TIRES AND TUBES
Funny thing, although it doesn't seem like this should be the case, it turns out that almost anybody can actually put a clincher tire—any clincher tire—on any rim with just his or her hands (i.e., without the use of a tire lever). One caveat: It's a little harder with 650c than with 700c.
The reason I bring this up is that it is harder to pinch your tube (inside your clincher tire) if you mount it up with just your bare hands, as opposed to using a tire lever (or two or three levers). In either or any case, there is always the chance that in mounting a new tire or tube, you'll put a micro tear or a hole in the tube. If you choose to mount a new tire, do it a couple of days before the race. Fill it up and let it sit with 100psi in it overnight. Check it in the morning and see if it has the same amount of pressure in it. If it doesn't, change it (okay, latex tubes will leak a little overnight, but not more than a pound an hour).
I am also a proponent of riding perhaps 25 or 30 miles on a set of new tires before you race on them. And, again, before any and every race, fill it up and let it sit overnight. Do this two or three nights before the race, checking your tires the following morning. If something's amiss, you want to find out with a day or two to fix it.
RIM STRIPS
It's amazing how many people don't know about rim strips. If you don't have rim strips on your wheels, you WILL have a flat tire. It's not a case of if, but when. A good rim strip like that on the left will keep spokes from poking up into your tube, and will keep your tube from wanting to expand down into the spoke holes. If you don't know whether or not your wheels have rim strips, deflate the tire, push the tire and tube off to the side, and look. You don't need these on tubular tires (sew-ups) just on clincher tires. Tubular tires come with their own rim tape, as part of the tire.
COGS AND CHAINS
Cogs and chains grow old together, like a well-matched married couple. They grate on, cling to, and make room for each other. When you brush the dust off your shiny, sparsely-used rear race wheel and mount it onto your trusty steed, you might find that your almost-new cogset may not perform well with your well-worn chain that has 1800 miles on it. Funny thing, the chain performs great with the cogset that has 1800 miles on it, but not the cogset with 18 miles on it. What do I mean by bad performance? When you're trying to hammer and your chain skips on your cogs. You'll find that this will only be the case with one or two of the cogs on your cogset, but that's enough to drive you crazy.
What do you do to keep this from happening? First, ride your race wheels a couple of days before the race. Ride, let us say, 5 or 10 miles, and make sure you ride fairly briskly in each of the cogs. You'll discover if you need a new chain or not.
If you do, make sure you've discovered this in enough time to do something about it. Once I needed a new part (I forget what exactly I needed) for a race I was attending in Provo, Utah over the 4th of July. I got there Saturday afternoon, the race was on Monday. Plenty of time to fix the problem I discovered Saturday night. Ever try to find anything open in Utah on Sunday?
Personally, I take no chances with this kind of stuff. I'm prepared with spare chains and cogsets before I need them.
ADJUSTING THE DERAILLEUR
In theory, you should be able to change from training to race wheels without having to adjust anything. But, this is the real world and, as the bad sergeant says in Platoon, "There's the way things oughta be, and there's the way things are." Best if you know whether your rear derailleur needs adjusting before the race, not during. "No big deal," you might say. "I'm a pro at trimming my rear derailleur on the fly with my barrel adjusters." All well and good. It's more the hi-lo gear adjustments I'm thinking about, those two little phillips-head screws on your derailleur. These you can't adjust on the fly, and if you need that 23t cog it's best to find out before the race that your low gear screw is threaded in a touch too far rather then when you're on the hill and discover you can't shift into it.
USE NEW
Look, racing is expensive. Races are expensive. Lodging and travel is expensive. Don't be a cheapskate when it comes to tires. Check your tires for wear, for cuts, for bubbles, for any imperfection several days before the race. If you're not happy with what you see, change the tire. The kind of tire that doesn't blow during the race is an essentially new tire that has 20 or 30 miles on it. In other words, a fresh tire that has just enough miles such that any manufacturing defect will make itself known.
GLUEING TIRES
Do you have sew-up tires? Want to know how to glue them on? Just click.
