Another annoyance is when I carry pretty much any passenger, the added weight causes the tires to squoosh down. Even if they're inflated to rock-hard, you add a payload of around 400#, and you're going to get squooshed tires. This makes it harder for poor Quzqo to haul us around.
And of course there's the constant fear tickling the back of my mind...what if I get a flat 4 or 5 miles from the barn? Granted I could always unhitch the horse and ride him back...what a comedy of errors THAT would be. I'd rather avoid it.
I've known for years that they make something called solid tubes for these tires. No inflation needed! And just so happens that the company where I got the cart from initially, American Cart & Harness, was having a big sale on them (partly, okay, mostly because they're going out of business, drat). I ordered a set, along with a fuzzy breast collar pad for the harness, and a little lunch hamper that hangs down under the cart seat. Who knows, SOME day I might actually go for a picnic, but hey, it was on sale!!
Unfortunately it turns out the tubes were out of stock, but the nice folks at AC&H found another source for solid rubber wheels, would I like those instead? Sure! They ordered them for me from the manufacturer, Nu-Teck, they were drop-shipped, and at long last, solid rubber wheels!
I ASSumed (and you know what happens when we assume...) that since the cart wheels were oversized bike tires, that a bike shop could install the new tires for me! I took them to a bike shop in town that I've done business with for 40 years or so (okay, so I haven't been there since 1985, but I bought a bike from them back then!), and left the wheels with the slightly skeptical repair dude in the back room.
Next day I get the call; they couldn't do it. Even with three strong men, they couldn't stretch the solid tires enough to get it up over the rim! Shoot!!! I picked the wheels up, and not ready to give up, drove across town to another bike shop. Can't hurt to try.
Well, I walked in with one wheel and one solid tire...the young guy behind the counter looks like I'd walked in with a rotten skunk, and outright says he's not even going to try, so sorry. Going to have to "decline".
I guess it's a testimony to my ignorance...I thought it was just a frickin' bike tire, but that's what I know. With our (very) brief discussion, it occurred to me that maybe I could take it to someplace that sells motorcycle tires...surely they'd have the equipment, and it's sort of like a small, thin motorcycle tire.
With renewed hope, I returned to work, but sadly, the guy I planned to ask where he gets his motorcycle tires mounted, had gone for the day. Well, crap!
Later that afternoon, with a spare moment, I did a little Googling. With that research, I found out why the guy at the second repair shop looked so crestfallen and repulsed when I walked in with solid bike tires. But happily, I also found out how I could mount those tires myself!!
My brother came by yesterday to till the garden and do some chainsaw work around the property, and since he had a web strap tightening tool, I enlisted his aid!
We ended up sticking the wheel over his trailer hitch, with the tires half-mounted on the rim and held in place with zip-ties. He ran a rope around the remaining tire, tied it to the tightening tool, and with the rim well lubricated with dish soap, managed to stretch the tire, and using a flathead screwdriver, eased the tire into the rim!
It was RIDICULOUSLY easy, the tires snapped right down into the groove, and look great! I'm half-tempted to call up both bike shops and give them a loud razzberry!
Took the tires back to the barn, put them back on the cart, and now I'm anxious to get on the road to try them out!! Of course the way the weather's been, that might not be 'til Spring 2010, but I know in the meantime, they won't go flat sitting there, waiting!
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