A valve stem cap

It may seem insignificant and small but you try screwing a plastic valve stem cap down so hard onto your bike inner tube that the stem pushes clean through the top of the cap.

3 thoughts on “A valve stem cap”

  1. Dear Lief,
    Valve stem caps are intended to keep common road debris (dust, mud, manure, etc) from contaminating the inner workings of that delicate device known as a “valve mechanism”. As such, their purpose is satisfied by being merely snugged tight so they don’t fall off; it is not necessary or desirable for them to be any tighter.

    Valve stem caps do NOT keep the air in. That is the purpose of the inner tube and that aforementioned “valve mechanism”.

    I’m sure that that valve cap was defective; being made of plastic (and probably in a third-world factory where the machines are less than precise and the quality control is non-existent), it is quite possible that the top of the cap was extremely thin and fragile. So don’t take it personal that you broke it.

    Love, Your Grandpa

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  2. You just need to go steal…er… buy some chrome ones. Then watch out for punk kids trying to steal them from you!

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