DIY Life

Most of us used sleeping bags throughout the summer for various camping trips and overnight adventures. Unless you're going survivor style in the snow, you've packed away your camping gear and brought out your down blankets and warm coats. How you packed away that sleeping bag will make a big difference as to how well it serves you next season.

These instructions for proper sleeping bag maintenance and storage are particularly useful. If you read through and find that you didn't clean your bag thoroughly or don't have it packed away in the best manner then you'll want to dig it out of the closet right away. Take care of those things and pack it away confident that it will be ready when you need it. Here's how your clean and dry bag should be stored:

If you ride a bike, you know the frustration of having a punctured tube. Suddenly, you are immobile. And that sucks.

Luckily, changing a bike tire tube is easy, but it requires a critical tool. The tire lever is vital to changing a tire, and if you have two of them, the work is cut out for you.

Slip the tire lever under the bead of the tire and pry the bead out from the rim. Then hook the lever tool onto a spoke, and, using the other lever, pry out more of the tire and then slide the free tool around the rim, pulling the bead out until that side is removed.

Removing the tire is easy. Carefully extract the valve stem -- the little tube you inflate the tire through -- from the rim, and then peel the tire and tube out of the rim.

Inspect the tire and tube for damage. In the photos, my tube has a puncture in it from a sharp, metal road hazard, probably a roofing nail. It also sliced through the tire itself, but hopefully you won't have this problem. The tube is the thing you want to pay attention to.

The hole in my tube is easily detectable. Nail punctures or other minor tears may not be so obvious, though. If your tire has a slow leak, chances are the hole is TINY. To find the puncture, put some air into the tube and submerge it in a bathtub or basin of water. Holding the tube under, inspect the tube closely for bubbles rising from it. Where there are bubbles, there's a leak. If you can't find it, put a little more air in the tire (in case the hole is so small that it only leaks under higher pressures), and repeat. If it's impossible to find a hole, you might have a problem with the valve stem. Submerge it, and gently work it around with your fingers to see if any cracks at the base of the stem are the culprit.

Once you find the damage, and it's not too bad to fix, you'll want to patch the tube. To do this, you'll need a kit with patches, sandpaper, and vulcanizing fluid (in a small tube). Sand the damaged area, spread vulcanizing fluid in the area around the hole (not too much, but you definitely want to cover the area where the patch will go), and wait for the fluid to set. This takes about 5 minutes.

Then carefully apply the patch, holding it on firmly and pressing all around it. Pinch it on and try to make sure it's contacting the whole area with the tacky fluid on it, and make sure the hole is as close to the middle of the patch as possible.

Let that set for a minute (with you holding it firmly, but not too hard) before you carefully remove the plastic backing from the patch. If the patch starts to peel up, you might need to sparingly put more fluid on the area, and then hold it in place firmly for a minute or two. The patch should peel off without too much hassle.

Replacing the tire is practically the opposite of removal. Put one side of the tire around the rim. You can do this by hand by pushing the bead of the tire over the rim and following it with your fingers around the rim until it pops on, and then carefully slip the tube back into the tire. Start with the valve stem, and be careful. I can't count the number of times I have replaced a tube but was careless with the stem, and ended up cutting the tube unintentionally right where the stem meets the tube. That sucks mightily, and I urge you to avoid this. It can produce a slow leak or a quick pop, and both of these outcomes are undesirable. Be attentive. The tube you save may be your own.

Seat the tube all the way around the inside of the tire, making sure it's not going to pinch against the rim. Push the un-inflated tire into the tire, feeling for twists or bunched up areas of the tube. Make sure the tire and tube are smooth against each other.

Then, using your fingers at first and then the levers, press the second side of the tire onto the rim. The bead will go on about 3/4ths of the way around the tire, then you'll have to use the levers again. It's a bit tricky at first, but once you do it you will feel confident and virile. Pump the tire up to acceptable limits, put it back on your bike, and ride away.

Note: You must make sure if you are replacing a tube that you get the proper size. Standard rim sizes are 26" and 27", and widths vary by tire. Some popular tire sizes are 26" x 2" and 27" x 1 1/4". Tire size is usually printed on the sidewall.

All right, many women can change a flat tire. But I will admit it right now, I am not one of them. I am somewhat embarrassed to confess this, but it's true. I found myself dwelling on this thought this morning as I sat on the side of a busy highway dialing my brother's cell phone number so that he could come help me out of a flat tire situation. Well, to be honest it was a blow out. I had somehow hit an invisible, very sharp piece of concrete and blown out my tire. As soon as I heard that awful thud, I had two simultaneous thoughts: one was about the safety of my 14 year-old son who was riding with me the other was the fact that at the age of 36 I still haven't the foggiest idea of how to change a flat tire.

Today my brother happened to be available to bail me out of my jam, but there will be other times when I won't be so lucky. When we got home from our adventure, I promptly looked up directions on how to change a flat tire. My sibling said he will teach me how to do it, but I printed out the directions and slipped them in my glove box. Tomorrow we are going to have tire changing lessons, but today I have to go replace the old tire and the rim it rode in on.

It's that time of year and if you like riding (as much as I do) then you've probably found yourself with a flat tire at one time or another. If you didn't know how to change your tire or didn't have the tools to do it, well, then it probably made for a long walk home. If you haven't had a flat tire yet , and you ride a lot, your day will come.

To avoid that day, the next time you're out on the terrain, be prepared. To help you out, I found these simple step-by-step instructions on fixing a flat, over at Outside magazine.

What you'll need:

• a pump,
  
• tire levers, and
  
• at least one spare tube-just don't store the tube with sharp tools.

What to do:

• Unseat one sidewall from the rim with a lever. Pry the tire up and skin the sidewall off the rim. Use plastic levers (or plastic-coated steel) so you won't dent or crack your rims.
• Remove the dead tube and whatever caused the puncture.
• Pump up your fresh tube enough that it holds its form and insert.
• Remount as much of the tire as you can by hand before levering the rest into place, which can be a Herculean feat with newer tires. Make sure the tube isn't pinched by the tire. Pump 'er up.

Enjoy the ride!