Testing the improvised presta adapter.

     By now everyone has seen the make shift presta adapter video on YouTube. If not Here it is. It looks like a good trick, but I needed to check it out and see how well it works.
     First is the obvious downside that you need to have a knife handy, or really strong teeth. It would be easier to leave an adaptor in your bikes seat bag. Another trick is to leave the adaptor on the valve stem in place of a cap.

I like to turn them up side down after I have inflated the tire, that way I know the valve has been screwed closed.
     On with the experiment. Using a box cutter I sliced thru the valve cap right where the knurling ends. The video is not real clear about how the remaining piece is installed. I tried installing it the normal direction.

This left the cap very loose and it was easy to screw it down to far and expose to much of the valve head(Like in the picture above) You could not use a air chuck with the valve protruding this much.
    Getting the cap level with the valve head allowed me to pump the tire with compressed air but there was a lot of leakage. It would be OK for the gas station quick fix.
     Next I tried installing the cap reversed. It was a little tougher to get started but that turned out to be fine because the seal between the cap and valve was much better.

Again you want to screw down the cap until the valve is just flush with the  top of the cap. Using an air chuck and compressor worked great, no leakage. Then I tried the real test, a hand pump. It worked! I as a little surprised that the seal was good enough but I was able to get around 100psi before the pump started having trouble gripping the cap and popped off. This is a solid work around if you need to get a presta tube up and only have a schrader chuck available.

Life time supply of presta adapters.

Balloon Car Gran Prix

     Some times you need to have a little fun. At the shop we decided a balloon car showdown was the way to go. The idea started when some balloon powered cars were spotted at the Porsche exhibit. They looked like fun but we all new more fun was to be  had in doing our own build off.
     The rules were simple. Each competitor would get a Pepsi can, bendy soda straw, sheet of construction paper, balloon, and a roll of tape. They could assemble the car in any fashion as long as only the supplied items were used. Prototyping was allowed and you could use as many materials as needed but only one of each in the final build.
     The winner would receive our coveted Specialized Christmas water bottle(Yes, they only sent one for the shop to share)

The builds were all kept secret until race night. Each build was unique.

Danielle

Brendan

Chuck

     The race rules were set at three runs with the greatest distance winning. The three run rule was immediately tossed out the window when all cars experienced technical problems. It was decided, on the spot, to mod and run until everyone passed out from repeatedly blowing up the balloons.
     After an hour and two nearly thirty foot runs, congratulations and awards were handed out.

 
     And the winners, Danielle with 1st, Brendan 2nd(by mere inches), and Chuck a distant third.

     Fun was had by all, it was better than team building and no one had to catch anyone.