Adam isn’t willing to get up before two in the afternoon to ride and thus I never see him. I don’t have the arm strength to hold the bike above my head for two or three hours while I’m waiting Dad to catch up, finish and photograph.

My bike riding uncle had the perfect opportunity to take a picture of my hoisting the bike at last year’s MS-150 but failed in that duty. If I can get him out of his winter cave and on the road, maybe he’ll get another chance.

—Matt

Sort of like the extra two bottles of water I found hidden in my panniers when I rode with you, Matt and Wally in Illinois on the Full Moon Ride.

http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2008/06/22/dont-let-anything-come-between-you-and-your-bike-shorts/

Gee, being at sea level apparently all things aren’t equal compared to Missouri “river level” because a flat here is F-L-A-T. If there was something left in my flat tires to ride on, a.k.a. CO2, I’d ride em till the rims sparked.

And while there is some debate as to how much hot air weighs (no shortage of that here in St. Louis as oldest brother already noted) I have yet to see a photo of YOU hoisting the Bianchi in the air after/during a ride. What gives? Did the bike become heavier when I shipped it to you from Missouri to Florida? Does being at sea level (all else being equal) make a difference?

You could blame it on the amount of salt water in the air as compared to the amount of just plain humidity here in St. Louis, but in my non-scientific way I discovered where a gallon of water here weighs 8 lbs. and gallon of salt water there weighs in at 8.5 lbs. Please, before you get your density calculator out and start punching buttons, I carefully took into consideration the amount of salt in the Atlantic ocean as compared to the Dead Sea…and my calculation has a temperature +/- variance of 20 Fahrenheit degrees.

The molecular weight of CO2 is 44.01 while the molecular weight of nitrogen is 28.013. The weight difference is non-trivial.

Given that most of what we slurp into our lungs in good old fashioned American air is nitrogen, the molecular mass of dry air is 28.97.

At nearly twice the weight (at sea level, all else being equal), I make sure to flush the CO2 out of my tires as soon as possible and replace it with either regular air or nitrogen.

—Matt

Nitrogen is now at the top of my MUST HAVE items list. Surely Amazon.com must have a bicycle pump that filters out the bad stuff – the oxygen and methane and other impurities – and delivers only pure nitrogen to your tube.

And the little green caps. I MUST HAVE those little green caps…

Finding a place to top off shouldn’t be hard. I think Costco and Sams offers nitrogen and so will a lot of small tire dealers. It’s a profitable business for them.

Whether they could deliver it to a high pressure bike tire in the 100-110 psi range, I don’t know. I also don’t know what they’d charge.

I’ve read that helium isn’t good for tires, but I don’t recall why.

Otherwise, in those cow towns Mark rides, he might have to carry that air pump with him.

It’s a wonder Mark hasn’t tried helium, being so light-headed.

Just think of the pump thing as being a pre-ride warmup exercise.

Second, doesn’t that plastic bike of mine look good? Read that as you might have a new bike, but take a look at mine and drool a bit.

Third, sadly the photo on the train hoisting the bike is my old Bianchi that Matt is now racing around town. But please take a gander at the kids on top of the train, they seem impressed.

Finally, it appears I will NOT be topping off my tires with nitrogen anytime soon, although I am somewhat sadden that I will have to regularly put air in the tires when I ride it. That pump thing is time consuming when I just want to hit the road and ride…. Read that as I am not retired and don’t have as much free time as you do.