Super Cub Volume 1 Chapter 39 - Puncture

 Previous | TOC | Next

According to the bike shop, Koguma’s Cub, which was now a Class 2 Motorcycle, had been upgraded from 49cc to 52cc, but to be honest, she couldn’t tell the difference between it and the previous Cub when she rode it.

A little over 5% increase in displacement and a suitable increase in power. According to Reiko, that amount of change could also be caused by air temperature, road conditions, and the amount of gas in the tank.

But putting those things aside, for Koguma, the change in the degree of legal freedom was bigger.

The maximum speed, which used to be limited to thirty kilometers per hour on all roads, was now the same as the other vehicles, allowing her to ride with ease and go with the flow.

She no longer had to make those incomprehensible hook turns at major intersections on main roads.

Since the second semester started, Koguma went everywhere after school and on holidays, on her Cub that had become freer than ever.

She looked at the maps of big towns and major roads in her home prefecture of Yamanashi, found roads she had never rode on or towns she had never been to, and rode to them. She had even gone to Suwa and Matsumoto in the neighboring prefecture of Nagano.

The city of Nirasaki, where she had travelled to so excitedly just a few months ago, had now become a landmark on her way back to her neighborhood.

She rode without the purpose of going to buy something or see something, only having something like a picnic where she ate her lunch at her destination sometimes, but she never got tired of riding, no matter how much she did it.

Koguma rode her Cub all around, as though being urged on by something. Perhaps it was because the lingering summer heat had settled down and it was now autumn, where the weather was more comfortable to ride in, or perhaps it was because winter was approaching, which would limit the activities of motorcycles.

On that day as well, Koguma woke up earlier than usual and rode around the neighborhood for a bit before going to school.

When she went to school after her Cub ride, which took the place of a morning jog, Reiko spotted her in the hallway and ran up to her.

“You’re okay?”

It was almost time for the morning bell to ring. Reiko pulled Koguma’s arm as she was about to head for the classroom and went to the bike parking lot.

When she was about to ask what was going on, Reiko asked abruptly,

“You didn’t get a flat tire?”

As far as she remembered, she didn’t remember anything wrong with her tires. When Koguma shook her head, Reiko explained.

According to Reiko, the owner of a soba shop on the way to school from Hakushuu, where Koguma was riding this morning, was arrested by the police.

He was charged with placing nails on the road to puncture the tires of passing cars. He drilled holes in the asphalt surface, inserted the nails, and fixed them with glue.

Koguma had never heard about it, and Reiko only learned about it for the first time when it became a matter for the police this morning, but before, there had been rumors about getting flat tires when you travelled on this road. The police hadn’t taken any notice at first, but there were so many cases that eventually a child on a bicycle got a flat tire, and the child got seriously injured by stepping on the nails, so the case came to light, and the person who had placed the nails finally got arrested.

Apparently, at first the purpose was to puncture the tires of the passing motorcycles that were noisy at night, but gradually it became fun to watch passing cars, motorcycles, and bicycles suffer from flat tires, and he continued to put nails on the road.

Koguma, who took a different route to school this morning, had also passed by the soba shop. Thinking that they might have gotten their tires punctured, Koguma and Reiko hurried to check the Cub’s tires.

Looking at the front wheel, Koguma couldn’t find anything unusual about it. The air pressure was normal when she pressed her fingers against it. 

Reiko, who was checking the rear wheel, shouted, “Ah!” Koguma also looked at the rear wheel. It didn’t look flat.

Reiko poked her finger at a spot on the tread where the tire made contact with the road.

“I guess we should give thanks to the Cub.”

A nail was stuck in the area Reiko was pointing to, and its silver head was poking out.

Without thinking, Koguma tried to pull out the nail, but Reiko stopped her.

“It’s better to just take it to the bike shop without removing the nail.”

The tire pressure was a little low, but in the normal range.

According to Reiko, Cubs were vulnerable to punctures due to their tubular tires, compared to the tubeless tires that were the norm for cars and motorcycles today. However, the Tuff-up tubes that came standard on Cubs were filled with vulcanizing cement that self-repaired punctures on the inside and sealed the holes well.

“You were lucky. Even Tuff-up tubes are no good when they’re no good, and a normal tube tire would have been out of commission after going a few hundred meters.”

After school. Following what Reiko said, Koguma took her Cub to the used bike shop where she had bought it, feeling worried about the nail-pierced tire. The owner quickly got to work.

Koguma spoke as she watched him work.

“I wonder if it would be better if I could fix the punctures myself.”

The owner, who recommended that she changed the oil herself, replied as he worked.

“It’s better not to. Cub tires are difficult. The lever tears the tube. Cubs can be fixed anywhere, so it’s better to leave it to them.”

She had heard that most bike shops had Cub tubes in stock, and that any bike shop in Japan that looked after a nearby newspaper shop or soba shop would be able to fix a flat tire on a Cub.

Koguma made a reply of understanding, but she had fixed flat tires on her bicycle by herself, and she was reluctant to leave the fixing of flat tires, which could happen in the future, to someone else.

Perhaps noticing Koguma’s reaction, the owner stood and picked up a motorcycle wheel from a corner of the store’s workshop.

As far as she could see, it seemed to be the same as the ones on her Cub. The old and dirty plated wheel already had a bald tire fitted onto it.

“Practice with this. Take the tire off, take the tube off, put them on like it was originally, and pump air into it. If the tube is torn and the air is leaking out,  put a patch on the torn part of the tube and start over.”

After repairing the puncture, the owner put an old tire with a wheel attached and a tire lever that looked like a small worn-out spoon into the front basket of the Cub, now with a new Tuff-up tube installed.

“They’re free.”

Koguma thanked him, paid for the repair, and left the used bike shop.

The repair cost was 3,000 yen. Apparently, the tube itself was quite expensive. It was a painful expense, but that was exactly why she had to learn to fix a flat tire by herself and save money.

After returning home, Koguma brought the old tire into her apartment, laid out a cardboard box and lined up the tire lever, the thousand-yen tool set she bought before, and her bike pump on top of it, and then began to practice changing the tire and tube.

Just as the used bike shop owner said, she broke the tube five to six times in a row and used up all her bike patches, but she bought more patches the next day and practiced after school.

After repeating the work nearly ten times, Koguma was finally able to change the tire without tearing the tube.

A few days later. Koguma suffered from a series of punctured tires, as though she was being possessed by bad luck.

Each time, she assembled a cheap tube that wasn’t the Tuff-up type, which she had bought in bulk from a mail-order store. After a few times, she became concerned about the strength of the tires themselves, which had several holes in them, so she replaced them with new ones even though they still had some tread left. Genuine Cub tires, not the expensive high-grip ones, were a thousand and several hundred yen each.

After several punctures, Koguma learned that if she got a puncture on the road, she shouldn’t force herself to fix it, but instead ride home with the crushed tire and replace the tube with a new one instead of patching it.

For now, she decided to keep a spare tube and a cylinder of instant puncture repair material in the rear box, in case she got a tire puncture too far away to return home on her own.

Previous | TOC | Next