Old Fools Journal: More Uses for Bike Innertubes

Yet another use for bicycle inner tubes. When I acquired this old Greyhound Bus in 1979 all the rubber gaskets around the doors and window were still in pretty good shape. There is no way to know how many times they had been replaced but in the prior 28 years I would guess several times. Maybe not for the windows but for the passenger door for sure. That is a high wear area. The old bus was built in an era of craftsmanship and responsible manufacturing of things that could be fixed. Any idiot with a screwdriver can replace the door gasket on this bus. I had to replace the door gasket back in the 90's and that's when I found out that replacing it is easy but finding a new one is difficult. Of course they don't make the special fitted one that all you have to do is remove and replace a couple of dozen screws so the search was on. I found some rubber gasket material that was about a ⅝inch tube with a 1 inch lip for attaching. Perfect, easy, simple and cheap. That completely wore out about 2 years ago and I have not been able to find anything like it.

In the pictures the vertical black thing on the door edge is the inner tube. Nevermind the stuff on the right side of the pictures as that is my work apron with the sissors and slingshot hanging just inside the door.


This was a quick and dirty job and no effort was made to be brilliant or artistic. It is cold and nasty and I just needed to plug that hole with something that works. It ain't purty but it works.



So what to do with the left over valve stem.

A while back when I had some work done on my 23 year old jalopy the shop that did the work broke the overflow tube on the radiator. Radiators these days are made of plastic and that little tube that sticks out just below the radiator cap that the overflow hose is connected to is a little delicate. I know it was an accident and the mechanic probably was not even aware of it happening. The shop is a good, honest shop that gives me good service at a reasonable price and since the radiator is nearly new I saw no reason to bother them about it.

A little plumbers strap, some high temp silicone and a bicycle valve stem and it's good as new. It will also give me something to talk about when I'm in the shop next .

The little tube with the small hose attached just below the filler is the valve stem.
Left over raw material with plenty more where that came from. I wonder if I could make a kilt out of inner tubes. I've laced a chair seat, made gaskets and washers, made rubber bands, used them as bungees, wrapped handlebars and I've used one for a belt. Great for binding a glue joint until it dries. I find so many uses for them that I don't know what I'll do if I can ever afford to get some solid flat proof tires.

My knuckles have thawed as you can tell because I'm typing but It's nearly noon, the wind is blowing out of the north and it has not reached 50 degrees F. Too cold for my hands to work with tools so I think I'll go for a bike ride. That's about the only thing I can do with gloves on besides pee my pants.