So, I like to take photos of my rides. Each of my rides. I probably ride 5 days a week on average. The photos are a study in composition of my bicycle, sometimes my interaction with my bicycle and the environment. After my ride I like to play with filters on my photos while I stretch out. Between my ride time and the stretch time there is plenty of time to think.

For some reason the presta valve was on my mind. It is so funny what one thought can lead you to. So here is the train of thought tonight about the presta valve.

With bicycles there are two types of valves, schrader and presta. Schrader valves are the same that are on your car tires. They are also present on bikes whose tires take lower air pressure. Presta valves are typically on bikes whose tubes and tires take higher pressure. My road bike runs at 120 psi. I air them up every other day. My mountain bike with tubeless wheels runs at 35 psi. Huge difference in the pressure, huge difference in the terrain and the tires response to that terrain. If I get a flat, it is from tire fatigue. Over time, the tube gets stretches and tears at the valve stem resulting in loss of air. Not fun. This brought me to a memory of an unusual flat. Other than a valve stem tear, gravel and/or glass particles cause a majority of flats. By the way, with regular inspection of your tires and the aide of a sharp knife you can pick those bits of particles out of your tire before they make their way to your tube. Anyways, back to the interesting flat. I had struck out to Raton, NM from Cimmarron, NM, my summer job location. Less than 15 miles into the ride, a flat. Upon checking things out, my flat was cause by a fake diamond earring. The post had gone clean through the tire to the tube. So, I got to change a flat. It is at this point in my train of thought that I realized that some might not have known how to change a flat. My feelings at this point of todays ride were of gratitude. My husband has spent quite a bit of his time showing me this world of biking. One of the first things he did was teach me how to change a flat. Instead of being stranded on a really long, lonely road before cell phones, I was able to fix the problem and get back on my ride. This brought me to another type of flat on this rather long train of thought. Another ride between Eureka Springs and Holiday Island, AR I flatted. This was a bad flat. The tire had a gash in the sidewall about an inch wide. Even if I put a new tube in it, the tube would immediately flat because the pressure would push it back through the tire and explode. These types of flats can be quite dramatic with sound, which immediately goes to yet another story. My husband had trained me well. You have to use a boot. A piece of material, usually an old piece of tire to put over the gash to hold the tire inside. For some reason, I did not have a boot. Finding a piece of cardboard in the ditch saved me on that ride.

Thoughts on the valve stem led me to this. Without the time, patience and knowledge of another person, I would not have known what to do at the time of these events. We need those who will teach is the bottom line. As an educator, I am very worried about teacher shortages. There I said it, this has been weighing me down and I do not know what to do about it besides say the words.