English bicycle tyre valves and hot weather

Pick up at the airport…

Émile: How was the trip?

Filippo: The usual. Crises unfolding just as the hour of departure enters the 24 hour to go window. Happen to you?

Émile: Always. Some things never change. What went wrong this time?

Filippo: Wasn’t a full-blown melt-down. Pressure during the final week. Finish classes. Packing the boxes…

Émile: Ah. The fifty boxes of your life. Jacques emailed me.

Filippo: Ran out of boxes, found several more but then the rear tyre valve rubber perished and leaked so I had to push the bike home.

Émile: In the summer heat, yes. The “eishiki barubus” do that.

Filippo: Finished packing the last box and rushed to the airport, no time for a shower.

_______

Voice-over

英式バルブ. Aka known as English valves, Dunlop or Woods valves. Change every year to prevent them perishing in the heat. Used in Japan but not in England despite the name.