Ghostbusters

Somewhere between "Who ya gonna call?" and "He slimed me," I found something to define last night.
First of all let me say that I really don't like Slime in bike tires. Detest it. Now, I do use a tubeless setup on my mountain bike, but that has a way to get air out when I need to make a repair. Slimed tubes are just a mess when the slime fails to patch the hole, which is just about any time the tube gets a puncture. If you've got a puncture problem, use a tire liner. Please. It is so much better to stop a hole than try to fill it with a liquid.
Now, why, you may wonder, do I start a post with this plea? The answer is simple. I had to deal with Slime last night. The LDS missionaries (as parodied in an Axe body spray commercial) who I mentioned recently, returned with another bike problem: a flat rear tire. This was a tire filled with Slime. That meant that while it wouldn't hold the air to keep the tire filled, it also wouldn't let low-pressure air out either through the puncture or the valve stem. I poked an prodded at that valve stem with a bunch of tools, finally settling on a nail punch that I have hanging around. I actually think that I got as much Slime out of the time as I did air. (And neither came out in sufficient quantity to make a real difference.) 

That was the single most difficult tire removal I've done in years. I had to use three tire levers, including my strongest metal tire levers, to pull the tire bead a few centimeters at a time. Once I removed the tube, I found that a lot of Slime had come through the hole, and was settled messily along the tire casing. Oh, did it slime me.

After getting the tube out, I filled it with air again to find the hole, a feat requiring an air compressor. I rotated the tube to hear the air flow. Once I found the leak, I rotated it back to the low point of the tube and waited for the Slime to work. It came through. I wiped off the excess and put on a speed patch. I then released enough air to fit the tube back into the tire -- again requiring the use of the nail punch since I lack a valve stem puller --and inflated it to riding pressure, only to listen to the slow hiss of air through a tiny hole. The tire was flat again in under 10 minutes. He needs a new tube. I guess I'll buy one today so that I can get my loaner bike back and get him on his way.

I guess that now as the missionaries find a bike problem and ask the questions made famous in that great movie of the '80s, Ghostbusters, "Who ya gonna call?", the answer will be me. Maybe this is how God teaches me to give service to my fellow man.

p.s. LDS missionaries don't usually just recruit the help of random strangers to help them with bikes. I was referred because I worship in a congregation that they cover with their services. And, in response to the Axe ad, missionaries always travel in pairs; just a small, missed detail.