Bike Tires

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 130

Dependable bike pump

Topeak Joe Blow Floor Pump

After breaking four or five “rugged” bike pumps in four or five years, I made the hefty investment into a Topeak Floor Pump four years ago, which cost about half what I had paid for the “cheap” ones before. It’s still going strong and doesn’t show any sign of wear.

As to which model to choose, it depends on the bike. For a racing bike you’ll want a pump with a small-diameter cylinder, e.g. “Topeak Joe Blow Sport II” while for a commuter bike or a mountain bike you’ll want one with more volume, e.g. “Topeak Joe Blow Max II”.

These pumps are well-built, large enough (that includes handles, too) and have a good pressure gauge. The tube is long enough. But probably the best thing is the “TwinHead”. Depending on the valve type, either side fits. One side for Schrader valves, the other one for narrow valves. No adapter, no hassle, just push on and turn the lever. — Bernhard

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Puncture-proof bike tires

NoTubes

Most days I ride my bike to work, and about twice a week I do a several-hour trail ride. On average I was getting a flat a week (mostly rear pinch flats on downhill trail rides). My friend told me about Stan’s NoTubes system. The next time I sat in the dark cursing yet another flat, I decided to convert.

In the NoTubes system you remove your inner tube from your tire. No tubes! You add a rim strip that seals your spoke holes. Since there is no tube you need a filling stem to put air into the tire…..this is built into the NoTubes rim strip. Then you add some white liquid inside the tire that seals it airtight. It’s one of those things that seems like it would never work, but it works amazingly well. The white liquid sloshes around inside the tire and immediately reseals any punctures as they occur without any air loss. If you still need convincing, watch this amazing video.

I have not had a flat since switching, and I can run at much lower pressures when needed for technical downhill without the danger of pinch flats. The system even saves some weight (and un-sprung rotational weight at that). Installing the system is pretty easy, especially if you use lots of soapy water while installing the rim strip and tire. The only maintenance is that you have to keep adding a bit of the liquid every few months or so. The site also has preferred tires that work the best, and other good installation tips worth looking at before committing. I will never go back to tubes. — Alexander Rose

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Travel-size floor pump

Topeak Turbo Morph Bike Pump

The Topeak Turbo Morph is a lightweight frame pump that functions like a floor pump. It has a fold-out anchor for your foot, and the handle also flips sideways into a T-shape. It’s also got a hose, so you can easily inflate the tire while it’s mounted on the bike. Before getting the Turbo Morph about two years ago, I had a tiny frame pump that was just this side of useless. Most portable bicycle pumps are designed to be used exclusively with your arms/hands. Since they attach directly to the tire, they’re cumbersome to use and difficult to get to the full tire pressure. Contrast this to the floor pump in your garage. You anchor it with your feet and use your body weight to power it. Unfortunately, they are also too large to easily carry with you. I tried another “mini foot pump” before the Topeak, but it wouldn’t quite work with a Presta adapter. With my other frame pumps, I’d spend more time inflating the tire than I would fixing it, and it would be hard getting the thing past 60 PSI. With this pump, I can get the tire to its full 120 PSI in just a couple of minutes. I have the G model, which has a built-in gauge. More convenient to have a gauge on the pump than to have to carry a separate one. But if you’ve already got a gauge, then you probably won’t want the gauge version. I have puncture-resistant tires, but the key word is “resistant.” I still wind up getting a flat a couple times a year. This is well worth carrying. — Joe D.

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Puncture-resistant cycling tires

Schwalbe Marathon Plus Bike Tires

I had two punctured tires in three weeks right before I bought these. Since I switched to the Marathon Plus tires a few months ago, I haven’t had a single puncture. The Marathon tires come in two grades: normal and Plus, which is the more flat resistant of the two (Schwalbe also makes a model called the Supreme, which I haven’t tried). They are truly for everyday commuting, with tread and real heft. Most importantly, they have Schwalbe’s SmartGuard, a layer of “highly elastic, special india rubber” to help better protect your tubes from sharp objects.

The Marathon tires aren’t cheap — and it’s hard to tell whether it’s just been good luck or good engineering — but I feel confident it’s the latter. I ride a lot (28 km, two or three times a week, 10 months or so a year) and I used to get tons of flat tires, sometimes once a week. This month in particular is very bad for debris; it’s the thaw here in Toronto, so all sorts of junk gets left behind as the snow banks melt.

I’m sure part of why I was getting so many flats is due to the fact I usually ride an EZ-1 Recumbent. With a ‘bent, the front wheel is very lightly loaded and the back wheel is heavily loaded. I sit right on top of it (I’m 6’2″ and 240 lbs), so it probably carries 90% of my weight. I think this makes the tire more susceptible to punctures because I’m guaranteeing that anything sharp that doesn’t bend or move goes right in. I’ve ridden on a few other kinds of tires: Continental slicks (nice), cheapo knobbies (garbage), some satisfactory tires that came stock, and Primo Comets (dartboards).

I am riding under the same conditions, circumstances and in the same areas as when I used to get the flats, and haven’t had any trouble. Just last week I rode through quite a lot of glass with no problems. — Adam Norman

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Twice the stability for bikes

Pletscher Two-Legged Kickstand

While the need for a two-legged kickstand on a large tandem is fairly obvious, it’s not as clear why you’d need one for smaller bikes — until you start riding with children aboard. Whether you’re using a front-mounted Kangaroo WeeRide or a traditional rear-mounted child seat, preventing the bike from falling over when a child is strapped into the seat is a serious safety concern.

I first saw this Pletscher kickstand about seven years ago, when it came on our Bike Friday Family Triple. It’s an aluminum kickstand with two legs; the second pivots via a cam mechanism, so that it stows alongside the first leg. Made in Switzerland, it’s a cool piece of hardware for the folding design alone. Stowed, it looks like a standard Greenfield kickstand, with an extra leg.

The double-legged stand makes a big or heavily loaded bike far more stable when you dismount, and it can also double as a makeshift workstand for back-end fixes, as it lifts the rear wheel off the ground. We now have two bikes outfitted with this kickstand, and with our youngest still 17 months old, we’re considering a third. — Yitah Wu

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

03/24/25

Many-Worlds Vision/Life in Weeks/Overview effect

Recomendo - issue #454

Dreams illustrated

Other people’s dreams are usually not interesting, but Claudia Dawson—our “CD” in this newsletter—records and visualizes her dreams daily in a way I find enjoyable to read. She summarizes her dream in a few brief sentences, and illustrates them with an AI-generated image. She made a book of her most potent and profound dreams of the last few years, and I’ve been sending friends a copy because it is an unusual and distinctive art. The collection is called Many-Worlds Vision, and she also sends out a newsletter by the same name. – KK

Life in Weeks

This free website app lets you design a map to visualize your life in weeks. It’s pretty self-explanatory and easy to use, you just need to create a free account to save it. I’m still working on mine, adding moves, jobs, and relationships, but as I build it and preview it, I feel a mix of emotions that is both sobering and inspirational for the second half of my life. — CD

Cosmic perspective changer

Astronauts seeing Earth from space experience a mix of awe and interconnectedness that reduces anxiety and increases well-being. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell called it an “explosion of awareness.” This Forbes article explains how to get this “overview effect” without leaving Earth. The key is seeking experiences that make you feel small against something vast: stand on high viewpoints, stargaze away from city lights, step back to find meaning, and find a way to “trust the process.” — MF

Genre-bending movie

I recommend you watch the Oscar-winning film Emilia Perez without knowing too much about it. Don’t read up. The less you know ahead of time, the better. I can say that it’s in Spanish with subtitles, a crime melodrama with feel-good vibes, plus it is a French musical (!), and you won’t guess what happens next. Not in a weird, spooky, absurd way, but in a plausibly surprising way. It is now streaming on Netflix. — KK

Best coffee bean storage container

I use an OXO POP Container (1.7 Qt) to store coffee beans. It has a push-button mechanism to create an airtight seal. It’s dishwasher safe, including the lid. Just don’t drop it — the BPA-free plastic can crack. — MF

Developmental Affirmations

These affirmations support growth at every stage of life, starting with the prenatal, and are designed to be used across your entire lifespan. Many of these messages were not expressed to me as a child, but I am using them now as a way to “reparent” myself. You can speak them to yourself, write them down and carry them with you, or express them through the way you speak, touch, and interact with the people you love, especially when they need support. The one I’m working on right now is: “You can say your hellos and goodbyes to people, roles, dreams, and decisions.” — CD

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03/23/25

Southwest’s Decline/Tiny Travel Speaker/Poor Suitcase Choices

Nomadico issue #147

Southwest Racing to the Bottom

In this year of corporations disappointing us over and over, the latest is once-beloved Southwest Airlines, now destined to become just another fee-obsessed, unpopular airline. The CEO said six months ago that the “Bags Fly Free” policy was staying, but he apparently has no power to keep his word: Southwest will now be just like American and Delta starting May 28, with baggage fees, restricted basic economy tickets, and the trading of a transparent frequent flier program to an opaque one with variable pricing. As this Cranky Flier article says, “Southwest has erased every single positive differentiator it ever had.” One silver lining is if you have the Southwest credit card, you still get a free checked bag because…that’s what the other legacy airlines do.

A Tiny Travel Speaker and White Noise Machine

This month I’ve been traveling with a new travel speaker, a tiny one called the LectroFan Micro2 that has a couple of unique functions. The speaker portion can rotate up to direct the sound, if you have two you can turn them into Bluetooth stereo speakers, and there are 11 white noise functions to help you sleep like ocean, fan, and rain. Yes I know, you can just dial a white noise sound up from a streaming service anytime, but this doesn’t require any internet connectivity or phone pairing to help you sleep.

2 Large Wheels Beats 4 Small Ones on Suitcases

This newsletter usually features travel recommendations, but sometimes we need to point out something to avoid instead. After watching people struggle with those pretty but not-so-useful spinner suitcases for years, I finally wrote a rant on why to avoid them on my Cheapest Destinations Blog. I have traveled with two well-made ones from good brands, but only when I know my trip will just be a series of airports, hotels, and taxis. That’s because the small plastic wheels can’t hold up to cobblestones, pavers, broken pavement or even carpet in some cases. 4-Wheel Spinner Suitcases are Terrible on Uneven Surfaces.

Top Digital Nomad Destinations Study

Publications are constantly putting out studies about the best digital nomad spots, but many use data points that don’t matter to most of us on the road. This one from CNBC and a visa site is a bit better since it includes cost of living, internet speed, tax-free length, and healthcare options. Spain tops the list, as it often does in these surveys, but it’s an interesting bunch otherwise. The top-10 includes Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, and Brazil.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

03/20/25

What’s in my NOW? — Noah Donmoyer

issue #205

a 16 year old who loves music, basketball, tinkering with electronics, and fixing electronics. youtube channel where i put videos and music i make: https://www.youtube.com/@nowuhhh — Noah Donmoyer

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PHYSICAL

• iFixIt Pro Tech Toolkit – i’ve been tinkering with electronics such as game consoles, phones, computers, and laptops for a long time. this is insanely useful for that purpose because it comes with almost any bit for electronics, multiple tweezers and spudgers, a high-quality metal driver, and pretty much everything you need (besides the parts) to work on electronics, all bundled up in a high-quality and compact case. i’ve used this kit to repair my computer, and disassemble my various game consoles and phones many times. overall, as a tinkerer, i couldn’t imagine living without this kit.
• Threddies Superstretch Cotton Blend Headbands (Black) – as an avid basketball fan and recreational player (with long hair i might add), this headband is crucial for keeping sweat and hair out of my eyes while practicing. it’s very soft and comfortable on my head, and because of the stretchiness, it doesn’t feel like it is going to fall off or like it is too tight. without it, I wouldn’t be able to comfortably play and practice my favorite sport.
• Blonde (Album) – i’ve been listening to this album on repeat recently, more specifically the song “Nikes”. this album is amazing and especially great to listen to when you’re sad, mad, or feeling any kind of emotions. you can cry your eyes out to this, lay down and stare at the ceiling/sky to this, or even just use it as background music to help your productivity while working. in fact, i’m listening to it while writing this now. my personal favorite songs from this album are “Nikes”, “Self Control”, and “Futura Free.”

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DIGITAL

• FL Studio 20 Producer Edition – this software may be expensive, but it is extremely versatile and helped me to discover my hobby of music creation. you can do some amazing things with this software and make some really nice sounds too. in particular, i’m having fun being able to mix and master my own vocals and create my own instrumentals using this tool in conjunction with a midi piano.
• Looperman – a website with thousands of free audio loops and samples, free acapellas, and free plugins to use in the music you create. i use the free loops all the time either for inspiration or just to play around with for fun. as a highschooler without much money, having free access to all these high-quality material really makes a difference in the quality of my music creations, and has made it easier for me and others to get into this hobby without spending that much money.

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INVISIBLE

• “Nothing in life is promised except death. If you have the opportunity to play this game of life you need to appreciate every moment. A lot of people don’t appreciate the moment until it’s passed” — Kanye West.

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03/19/25

Cow Boy / The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye

Issue No. 58

COW BOY – DON’T MESS WITH THIS 10-YEAR-OLD BOUNTY HUNTER ARMED WITH A HOBBY HORSE POP GUN

Cow Boy: A Boy and His Horse
by Nate Cosby
Archaia
2015, 112 pages, 6 x 9 x 0.3 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

Boyd Linney, also known as the Cow Boy, is a 10-year old bounty hunter. Armed with a custom pop gun in the shape of a hobby horse, he roams the West in search of wanted criminals. Unfortunately, they just happen to be his relatives.

A cinematic western about a 10-year-old bounty hunter, Cow Boy: A Boy And His Horse is action-packed, kid-friendly, and surprisingly gritty. Light on dialogue, where guttural utterances and highfalutin’ 25-cent words like dadgummit, tarnation, and goldarnt are sprinkled amidst desert landscapes and frontier saloon interiors, each colorful panel dramatizes a simple Wild West story of a boy in search of his wayward, outlaw family, and he’ll find them at any cost.

Breaking up the storyline are brief, humorous vignettes, one of a gunslinger with no underpants, a laser gun showdown with enormous steampunk robots, a woman who walks miles through the desert to accept a marriage proposal from an outlaw, and a gun-toting heroine with a penguin as a sidekick.

Propelled by Peanuts-like drawings that evoke a Sergio Leone-esque, widescreen atmosphere, this graphic novel features a compelling tale that touches on themes of family, loneliness, slavery, abuse, and gumption that never feels heavy-handed. Appropriate for all ages, Cow Boy: A Boy And His Horse is an entertaining page-turner that gallops along. – S.Deathrage

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THE ART OF CHARLIE CHAN HOCK CHYE – BUT JUST WHO IS THIS GREAT SINGAPOREAN COMIC ARTIST?

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye
by Pantheon Graphic Novels
Pantheon
2016, 320 pages, 7 x 1.2 x 10.4 inches (hardcover)

Buy on Amazon

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is one of the most intricate and impressive graphic novels I’ve ever read. It’s a biography of the great Singaporean comic artist Charlie Chan Hock Chye, and traces the evolution of Chan’s career by showing the wide array of artistic styles he experimented with. These range from Marvel-style superhero comics to celebrity caricatures, cartoonish science fiction, manga, noir, and more. All this is complemented by explanations and annotations of Chan’s work, which are also presented in graphic form.

The work is complex not only in style, but also in content. A driving theme throughout Chan’s career has been uncompromising political satire. Thus the survey of Chan’s work is also a dense and dizzying tour of 20th-century Singaporean history. The comics depict the complex Singaporean identity following independence from Britain, as the tiny nation-state struggled to define itself ethnically, politically, and economically.

While this is a weighty topic, there’s an ever-present humor in Chan’s comics. For instance, his superhero parody is called Roachman. Roachman worked as a human waste collector in Singapore’s pre-plumbing period, and gained his powers from the bite of a cockroach. His transformation into a superhero allows for commentary on the social ills of the day, as well as providing a snapshot of a country just before rapid urbanization and development.

The big conceit in all this is that Chan isn’t real. He’s a fictional character invented by Sonny Liew to take readers through a simultaneous history of Singapore and of 20th-century comics. One lasting impression from this book is that it must have been so fun to create: inventing not only an artist, but also his works, and the additional meta-layer of being a faux biographer/art historian. Only someone with an enduring love of comics could have produced this work. – Christine Ro

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

03/18/25

Living History

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 129

Memorable immersive history series

1900 House Frontier House Colonial House

The premise of this first reality-TV program is brilliant. Take an ordinary middle class family of the year 2000 and make them live for 6 months like an ordinary middle class family of the year 1900. The London-based producers succeed in this transformation by getting every detail of Victorian domestic life exactly right and complete. The volunteer family is plunked down in a different era as if by time machine, and there is no escape. No shampoo, either. The edited 6-hour result is deep, instructive, and totally riveting, Kids who hate history are mesmerized by it. Because it is so visual and visceral, it changed the discussion of chores and gender roles in our household. Better than 100 essays, this video series reveals the notion of progress. It is now my favorite history “book.”

The success of 1900 House spawned Frontier House, a parallel experiment that transfers the conceit to the edge of Montana in 1893 during homesteading days. It ups the challenge by requiring the participants to build their homesteads and raise all their own food while sticking to period tools and the lifestyle of pioneers. The three families who settle in a beautiful valley need to stockpile enough food, shelter and firewood to last a Montanan winter. Instead of cooperating, they compete against each other, making this remarkable 6 hours series into what Survivor should have been – an authentic test of surviving. There is probably no greater persuader of women’s inequality than this pair of films. The guys loved being pioneers, while the women and girls were imprisoned by it.

In the last to be made, Colonial House, the premise is now familiar — only with fewer tools. Make a modern family live with only the tools and resources available four centuries ago. The suburban families are sent to live in the summer of 1628, on a forested island off of Maine. Their task: build a New World colony (20 people strong) that can both survive and pay back its investors in England. Life is pretty grungy. Two families to a room; no outhouses.

Of the three programs Colonial House is the best, in part because of the reality show-like drama and bickering between the colonists. They fight over religion, status, and food. Cameras record every detail as the pudgy newcomers scrounge for scraps, learn how to farm Indian corn, all the while slowly starving, and assuming appropriate roles such as indentured servants with astounding ease. Who knew how easy devolution was? Like the hit TV series Survivor, it’s about how primeval people get when survival is at stake. But unlike Survivor, there’s genuine historical logic, authentic rituals, and significant meaning in their test. If I had to choose one of these three historical reenactments, I’d start with this one, the 8-hour Colonial House. But if I could, I would require every child in 21st century America to view all three series. These are the nearest things yet to a time machine. — KK

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First person accounts

Eyewitness To History

Most of what you read about what happened in the past is written by someone who read what someone else read about it. Here is a diverse collection of short first-hand, eyewitness accounts of what proved later to be important events. Vivid, uncensored, naked testimony from someone there at the time. Make up your own mind.

• Landing in New England, November 1620 William Bradford.New England had been named by captain John Smith, who explored its shores in 1614. The first permanent settlement was made at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620 by the Pilgrim Fathers aboard the Mayflower, whose arrival is described here.
  
  About ten a clocke we came into a deepe Valley, full of brush, wood-gaile, and long grasse, through which wee found little paths or tracts, and there we saw a Deere, and found springs of fresh Water, of which we were hartily glad, and sat us downe and drunke our first New England water, with as much delight as ever we drunk drink in all our lives.
  When we had refreshed ourselves, we directed our course full south, that wee might come to the shore, which within a short while after we did, and there made a fire, that they in the ship might see where we were (as wee had direction) and so marched on towards this supposed River: and as we went in another Valley, we found a fine cleere Pond of fresh water, being about a Musket shot broad, and twice as long: there grew also many small Vines, and Fowle and Deere haunted there: there grew much Sasafras: from thence we went on and found much plain ground about fiftie Acres fit for the Plow, and some signes where the Indians had formerly planted their Corne: after this, some thought it best for nearnesse of the River to goe downe and travaile on the Sea sands, by which meanes some of our men were tired, and lagged behinde, so we stayed and gathered them up, and strucke into the Land againe; where we found a little path to certaine heapes of Sand, one whereof was covered with old Mats and had a wooden thing like a Morter whelmed on the top of it, and an earthen pot laid in a little hole at the tend thereof; we musing what it might be digged and found a Bowe, and as we though, Arrowes, but they were rotten; W supposed there were many other things, but because we deemed them graves, we put in the Bow againe and made it up as it was, and left the rest untouched, because we thought it would be odious unto them to ransacke their Sepulchers. We went on further and found new stubble of which they had gotten Corne this yeare, and many Walnut trees full of Nuts, and great store of strawberries, and some vines: passing thus a field or two, which were not great, we came to another, which had also bin new gotten, and there wee found where an house had beene, and foure or five old Plankes laied together, also we found a great kettle, which had been some Ships kettle and brought out of Europe; there was also an heape of sand, made like the former, but it was newly done, wee might see how they had padled it with their hands, which we digged up, and in it we found a little old Basket full of faire Indian Corne of this yeare, with some sixe and thirty goodly ears of Corne, some yellow, and some red, and others mixt with blew, which was a very goodly sight: the Basket was round, and narrow at the top, it held about three or foure bushels, which was as much as two of us could lift up from the ground, and was very handsomely and cunningly made.

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

03/17/25

What’s in my NOW? — Noah Donmoyer