I was out on my ebike looking to score a food truck burrito this morning when the unthinkable happened. I hit a severe pothole which caused a flat tire:
I pulled over onto the grass so as not to obstruct other cyclists. I wasn't bummed, but excited. Months ago I invested in an electric bicycle pump that can run off my ebike's own battery. The tubes for both wheels are self-healing, supposedly, so all I had to do was wait for them to seal and get pumping.
You can see the opened bike frame above. Below, you can see how the electric air pump connects directly to the main battery output. Not just any pump will do this, it has to be designed to take the voltage of your ebike battery (52v in this case).
Here it is hooked up to the tire air inlet. Unfortunately this is where I discovered the damage was worse than I initially thought. The tube was split open. Self-sealing slime won't enable it to recover from damage that severe. Pump as I might, it stayed at 0 psi.
I tried it on the other tire just to make sure it was sealing correctly and it worked like a charm. Evidently I need a new rear tube. I might also take the opportunity to look for a larger diameter tire that can absorb impact better.
This will keep me off my bike for a little while since SBD is so low. I've got to save my pennies for rent, utilities and food this month. But as SBD recovers, I'll set some aside for bike repairs and potentially a few improvements.
Thank goodness there was a good samaritan nearby. His name was Justin and he drives a pickup truck with an electric lift gate that was perfectly suited to lifting this heavy sumbitch of a bike into the truck bed. I'm not sure what I would've done otherwise.
I'd have taken photos of the bike being lifted but I just met the guy and didn't know if that would've been ok. Anyways I still think the electric pump was a good investment even though it didn't do me a whole lot of good this time. One of these days it'll save my bacon, just wait.
Stay Cozy!