etpa.com.au

[Jill]

Can someone give some useful advice: The story goes like this:

Once there was a girl, lady, woman, mum! who purchased some new clincher race wheels at the end of Sep while OS. Time gets away, as usual, and anticipation grows for the first ride, the new bike to match is a bonus. She hasnt done much training at all this year but decides to give a short course race a go. Race day fast approaches and she thinks "shit" I better get the wheels sorted. Even if she cant ride fast the bike will look fast. Out they come from the box, Oh! they need rim tape, tape gets ordered with other things and takes nearly two weeks to arrive, tape is installed much easier than she thought, next comes the tubes and tyres, great she says I have some new tyres and tubes somewhere that I am sure have long valves, I will use them. Oh bugger she says valves arent long enough, she has heard of valve extensions so does some investigating, race day is now one week away. What to do? Rings a great friend who says no probs I have some will bring them over. Over he goes with his wheels and valve ext in hand. He offers his tyres, tubes and cassette, great bloke he is Anyway to cut a long story short, she tries to inflate his tyres but air keeps leaking, must be doing something wrong. She texts a Trigeek who advises that the core of the valve comes out and is inserted into the extension, Aah! she says wrong tubes cant unscrew the core. Off to the local bike shop, attendant looks at her funny and says I think Contnl make those tubes, needless to say he didnt have them and she couldnt find them anywhere on the net. What to do now, she rings the owner of the extensions who says nah you dont need different tubes just wack the pump on the zipp extensions. Home she goes, quick test of the extensions on her own tubes and wow it works.
Finally she says, at least she will get one ride in prior to race day, which is now 3 days out. Fits the tyres and tubes, with extensions, to both rims, not to mention the trip a couple of days earlier to the trigeek for cassette change as she couldnt remember what he showed her last time, doh! All ready to go, wack the pump on, no go, some air going in but more comin out, no pressure reading on the gauge, must be the pump, she tests it on the old bike, bingo bango, its not the pump must be the extension. What's going on she thinks, how hard can it be to put two new wheels on a bike! There she sitst, on the floor, new Cervelo by her side along with 2 deflated HED Jets and 2 deflated FPoints, pondering what to do next!


Advice required, after all that, -
- Can you infact buy tubes where you can simply unscrew the core of the valve and attached it to the top of the valve ext and if so what and where ?; or
- Do you simply need a tool to remove the core from any tube and place it on the valve extension, if yes, can you put the core back on the old valve?
- What's the story with valve extensions ?.


Lessons learned, for the purposes of other novices:
- Get the bike shop to set the race wheels up, with you, when you buy the bike, doh!;
- If you dont, at least dont what until the week before the race; and last but not least:
- If you fail to plan you plan to fail
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Jill

[james duncan]

Hi Jill,

Sounds frustrating.

There are a couple of different types of extensions. Some you do remove the valve core, screw on the extension then screw core into extension. Others like the Zipp ones you just screw it onto the end of the valve. I prefer the removable core ones but they do require a little tool to remove the core and you’re in trouble on race day if you don’t have it and need to change tube/tyre.

Without looking at it, it sounds like you have the second type, which can be a bit dodgy at times. I would first test the extension on the tube you intend to use before putting everything together. If it works then install it, if not the check that the valve moves freely and pumps up without the extension. If you have a tube it definitely works with use that one.

A couple of things to check are to make sure you have screwed the valve all the way out before attaching the extension (silly I know but I have forgotten to do it myself), and try to screw it on carefully to avoid screwing the valve back in at the same time. Also, before attempting to pump up the tyre poke something (a thin nail or something) into the extension to make sure the valve is able to move, like most people do before pumping up a tyre normally, pressing the valve to make sure it moves freely.

If I remember correctly you are in Melton and I am happy to have a look at it if you have no luck. Usually the quickest fix is to shoot down the bike shop and ask the mechanic for a hand. It’s probably something they can fix in a couple of minutes.

Good luck with the wheels and the race.

J.
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My Blog - Ironman Cafe - Check it out if you wanna laugh.

[Caff]

Hi Jill,
I have had issues with valve extensions.
the ONLY ones that have worked for me (and YES they work) are TOPEAK.
What you need is a Presta Valve extension

you can get them at "the Freedom machine" in Pt Melbourne or online at
Torpedo7

Try this

http://www.torpedo7.com.au/torpedo7/catalogindexsearch.do?formAction=changepage&searchProductCategories=true&searchForAllTerms=true&caseSensitiveSearch=false&searchAsPhrase=false&searchKeywords=true&searchTitle=true&searchRichDescription=false&searchCode=true&searchPrice=false&sortOrder=bestmatch%3Adesc&searchString=topeak&pageIndex=2&pageSize=15&brandCode=&categoryCode=&subCategoryCode=&minPrice=0.0&maxPrice=2.14748365E9&viewStyle=&sizeCode=
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Caff

[cyclingTips]

I think I wrote a post about your problem here:

http://cyclingtipsblog.com/2008/12/tubular-hint/

Check out some of the other stuff. I do a cycling tip of the day, every day.

Enjoy...

Wade

[Jill]

Thanks Ken, I actually got it sorted at Shepp, tried everything but they still leaked. A quick trip to the local Shepp bike shop and they had some continential valve extensions and the correct tubes, so all good now!
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Jill