The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-19
HISTORY OF A PUNCrURE.
Cost or Not Knowing How TO Repair n wheel
ana or Learning How to do u.

HISTORY OF A PUNCrURE.
Cost OF Not Knowing How to Repair n wheel
ana or Learning How to DO II.
ut seemed TO mo at first" said the amateur
wheclman, that nobody should own a bicycle
who had neither n taste for machinery nor a
valet to look after tho wheel. Without one of
these qualifications he amateur rider is Ger.
.ain TO have his troubles TO an extent that makes
riding n mixed pleasure, with some of the Gle.
mcnts very expensive. If he continues to ride
he should make it his business to learn every.
thing possible about n wheel. 1t may take
some time and patience. but 1t will save him
money and, moro than that, the notifying sense
of having been done by no end OF repair shops.
Il have met very few men in these shops who
would not undertake to fix anything about a
machine, SO long as there is n chance of profit
in it for them. My experience may have been
IL rarely unlucky one, but / can back 1t up with
the history of a puncture-only one of the in
cidenls in a troublous and expensive career Of
one years riding.
"The puncture came one Sunday afternoon
on Riverside drive by the Monument. On the
other side of the drive there was a man who had
a repair shop in the rear of a beer garden. He
examined the tire, and said he could not re-
pair 1t that afternoon. l couldn't wait, so l
deposited as cents, left my tire, and the fellow
lent me another. I was to call for mine on the
following Tuesday. II rained that day and for
the rest of the week. On Sunday l rode up TO
his place. The man had removed, and nobody
knew where he had gone. He had talked. they
said, about taking u shop at 129th street and
the Boulevard. l found that he had been
there to- see the janitor, and had talked about
taking n vacant shop in the place, but had
never come back. On his business card was the
nlluaa. % Al, homo VTln ,Jl.na, ,,.na a,,,nr
up in the annexed district. l went there. He
had moved away, and where he had gone no.
body knew. But he had said he was going to
take a shop: on the Boulevard at l29th street.
That was the shop hc failed to take.
II wrote letters to be forwarded, but never
my tire and my address. But he never let me
out through the ~janitor of the place where he
had inquired that a new, shop had just been
Ing inquiries at his old home that night and
was not on my wheel: hunted up the new
shop found nd, my man; and n was fo ad, that !, I'm the tiTe
day. / rode up there then. He was ;cry self
possessed, told me that he had rented the tire
promised to let me have a new one during the
week, He was calm, and there was nothing
when now was worth only a few dollars. and
anything l could have done would have cost a
great great o deal ca more n, than and 1t WAY, WAS W TgTth' , s sS !
back the next day he produced the tire with the
mcnorandum written two months before still
on it; said that II was all right, put It on my
wheel and asked for 30 cents more. gave 1t
TO him and rode away with the ~lightncss OF
heart that the father OF the prodigal son must
have felt.
"A few days later ! started to ride. There
Everything seemed ali right. That afternoon /
was hurry ing home TO escape a storm. IT was
late, when l struck Eighth avenue. and l had
rain had begun to fall and there, was not a re.
pair shop in sight. 1t was Sunday night and
shop l could find was II small one kept by, a
family, of foreigners of whom only one spoke
taking a check. / left the Wheel there. 1t was
to cost 90 cents. and be ready the next day
For the rest of the week it Tained. When !
been put through the tire and the repairing
had cost so cents more than the man said be.
the tire seemed sound again and l submitted.
The tire had cost $2.25 in repairs up to that
I'm the afternoon l started out to ride, and
discovered that the tire waJ limp again. |
blew II up. hut there was no wind in 1t after
repair shop blew it up, monkeyed with the valve
and asked 10 cents for doing that. The tire
collapsed in about ten minutes more, and that
cost 10 cents for more working with the valve;
When l got out of the park the thing collapsed
again with n bang. That time II had to be left
in a shop. The man in charge said he would
make 1t as good as new for .15 cents. and he
sent it back TO me tho next night. BY Sunday
morning it was gone again, and twice between
New York and Coney Island had to have IT
blown up. When | got to the entrance OF
Prospect Park on the way home it went all 20
pieces, and one honest man in a repair shop
said it could not be fixed inside Of a whole day:
But he doctored 1t up for me, and said that II l
rode rapidly ] might reach the bridge. |
broke down again at Flatbush avenue. For So
l hired a tire, OF this money l was to get 81
back when the man brought my tire and got
his back. He was TO come the next day. 1t
took three trips 10 darkest Brooklyn before |
got my tire and my So back. But every cloud
is not puncturcd. ! took the tire to the place
where I bought it originally, and it really was
made sound for 80 cents. But 1t had cost
me So.
I'm every case l had done the only thing pos.
sible under the circumstances. Every man had
sworn that the tire would be all right when he
got through with it. ! am not an expert on
tires and believed what they told me. Maybe
I am too contldIng. But | am trying to learn
all about II wheel. I took mine to pieces the
other night to examine the parts. Thoroughly.
I think I learned some of them. but ! had to
pay a man 30 cents to come around and put II
together again. II costs almost as much
to learn rs TO be ignorant"