I wore long pants and rode up to Performance to get a couple tubes.
I'm not sure how buying tubes can turn out to be so aggravating, but it did.
I locked up Jamis (no bike racks, what's up with that?) and went in.
Stared at the display of tubes, because, you know, I can't see for beans, but mostly all those metric measurements confuse me. The Jamis tire is 700c x 28.
A guy comes over, asks me if I need a tube for the Jamis. I say yes, he says this is what you need. It's 700c x 19-26 (I think). The box indicates it's a LONG Presta stem. I say, I want a SHORT Presta stem, he hands me another box from the same bin that doesn't indicate it's a LONG stem. I said, but my tire is a 28, he says, this will work fine.
Ok, I buy two.
I get home and compare it with the ones one the bike. You know, the LONG ones. The ones that are so hard to get into the hole.
They're the same.
I dig through the trash, I find the SHORT Presta stem tube. It's a Cheng Shin.
It's the one on the left, below. The SHORT one.
Performance doesn't carry Cheng Shin, as far as I know. Apparently they don't have any SHORT Prestas, either. That Cheng Shin was the original front tube, by the way.
So now I'm p.o.ed at Performance for convincing me to buy the wrong thing.
I'm p.o.ed at myself for letting them.
And we won't EVEN go into the Not Returning Things phobia I have.
And we won't EVEN mention the different sizes.
