Presta valve unscrewey thingy...

UndercoverElephant
UndercoverElephant Posts: 5,796
edited January 2010 in Commuting chat
Sorry to get technical in the title...

Yesterday morning I was going to pump up my tyres, and it being morning I wasn't at my best. Anyway, I unscrewed the screwy-inny bit from the valve and it fell out and got lost through a wormhole in my garage and is currently living life as a mushroom in another dimension.

Anyway, the tyre still seems to have air in it, so does it make a difference if I haven't got that bit at all?

Comments

  • Clever Pun
    Clever Pun Posts: 6,778
    as long as the little bit of metal it screws on to doesn't move you should be ok... you got a dust cap on right?
    Purveyor of sonic doom

    Very Hairy Roadie - FCN 4
    Fixed Pista- FCN 5
    Beared Bromptonite - FCN 14
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    It retains the seat when there's not air pressure to keep the valve seated.

    As long as there's air in the tyre it will be OK (as the air pressure will keep it in place) but as soon as you get a puncture it will fall into the tube and be lost.
    - - - - - - - - - -
    On Strava.{/url}
  • biondino
    biondino Posts: 5,990
    Not that it matters unless you're one of these wicker-man-burning types who actually *repairs* a punctured inner tube...
  • Wallace1492
    Wallace1492 Posts: 3,707
    I have buggered up a few of them with my pump.... but, hell, as long as they stay inflated and you have contingency...
    "Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 18,878
    Presta valves are the devil

    FACT
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • itboffin
    itboffin Posts: 20,052
    biondino wrote:
    Not that it matters unless you're one of these wicker-man-burning types who actually *repairs* a punctured inner tube...

    Oi i'm watching you

    I can't afford to keep buying tubes it's costing me 5 a month on avg.
    Rule #5 // Harden The Feck Up.
    Rule #9 // If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
    Rule #12 // The correct number of bikes to own is n+1.
    Rule #42 // A bike race shall never be preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run.
  • Thanks chaps, my mind is at ease. Sounds like I can't inflate it any more though, which is a shame. I do have a load of spare inners at work, and carry a couple in my seat pack, so no real worries. Might get an itch to fix it at some point, but not just yet.
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    biondino wrote:
    Not that it matters unless you're one of these wicker-man-burning types who actually *repairs* a punctured inner tube...

    Tube-repairers would never burn wicker-men. Too much CO2.
    - - - - - - - - - -
    On Strava.{/url}
  • prj45
    prj45 Posts: 2,208
    Thanks chaps, my mind is at ease. Sounds like I can't inflate it any more though

    Er, yes you can.

    I think.

    Or maybe you can't.

    Pretty sure you can though.
  • Thanks chaps, my mind is at ease. Sounds like I can't inflate it any more though, which is a shame. I do have a load of spare inners at work, and carry a couple in my seat pack, so no real worries. Might get an itch to fix it at some point, but not just yet.

    You might manage to reinflate it - it's a matter of where it goes if you get another puncture. I repaired a tube without the screw part a while ago, then had another puncture and managed to repair it and reinflate it a few times. But I only managed to repair one puncture. During the second post-valve puncture, it dislodged itself. The tube is now in a bin in Telegraph Hill Park.
  • always_tyred
    always_tyred Posts: 4,965
    prj45 wrote:
    Thanks chaps, my mind is at ease. Sounds like I can't inflate it any more though

    Er, yes you can.

    I think.

    Or maybe you can't.

    Pretty sure you can though.
    It depends. Without the brass screwy thingy to keep the brass threaded thingy aligned, it may unseat at any time there isn't a high pressure to keep it pressed in place. Naturally, inflating it requires the valve to be unseated.

    I've managed to stuggle home with such valvues before, but Ive found that trying to pump the tyres up later is temporarily succesesful, but inevitably results in the remainder of the valve being fired across the garage a couple of minutes later and killing the cat.

    So I replace immediately these days.
  • prj45 wrote:
    Thanks chaps, my mind is at ease. Sounds like I can't inflate it any more though

    Er, yes you can.

    I think.

    Or maybe you can't.

    Pretty sure you can though.
    It depends. Without the brass screwy thingy to keep the brass threaded thingy aligned, it may unseat at any time there isn't a high pressure to keep it pressed in place. Naturally, inflating it requires the valve to be unseated.

    I've managed to stuggle home with such valvues before, but Ive found that trying to pump the tyres up later is temporarily succesesful, but inevitably results in the remainder of the valve being fired across the garage a couple of minutes later and killing the cat.

    So I replace immediately these days.

    Ah, that should be fine, we don't have a cat. :D