tire-fixing

tire-fixing

t.z. | Friday, 16 October 2015

I should have - as promised - put together the next section of the sexyloops fly tying school, but … well - you know how it goes sometimes. I read Bernd's page and Paul's comments … and hey - we are also two which fish together. Heck, we do pretty much everything together. Fish, sleep, eat, ty flies and for next summer riding motorcycle is on the list. … and of course we travel together. So this Fridays article is about my partner.

Travelling is fun and exciting. Putting one self in funky situations and learn how to get out of it. Might it be the Malaysian jungle, or in our case the Swedish country roads.

Last year I had travelled about in northern Norway and Sweden - and on my way back home to Oslo I managed to have two flat tires. Somehow I still managed to get home - which involved stopping every 100k for pumping up the leaking tire.

Konstanse, me and the kids travelled the same roads this summer and … you guess it by now …. we had a flat tire pretty much exactly where I had blown mine the year before. So we had to stop by the road in the middle of Swedish nowhere, unpack the car to get to the spare wheel. You know the deal.

But when I took the spare wheel out of it´s compartment in the boot of the car I heard a funny noise. That kind of high frequency „psssssssss“ - clearly indicating air escaping it´s tight home INSIDE the tube. What the heck was that? The whole scene felt like a big joke. We looked at the tire, at eachother, at the tire. After a few long seconds of this I found the hole. I asked Konstanse to put her thumb on it. While she was stopping the air I looked for the knife and a piece of wood I could carve into a pin to close the hole with. After I managed that we replaced Konstanses finger with that pin. Done. No more „psssssssss“ …

We than analysed the situation and found out that the clever mechanic who had the car for service had managed to drill a screw through the cars floor, and straight into the tire. Brilliant. So Konstanse crawled under the car to get that screw out. It had caused the hole, so it surely must fit into the hole and make the tire airtight again, we thought.

So we split the job. Konstanse set the screw in the tire while I was getting the jack under the car. Both tasks were tricky. Mine involved rocks and a tree as the jack was too high for the car. Konstanse had to take the pin out, the screw back in and hold the tire somehow - not to forget the swiss knife in her forth hand. This involved some secret manoeuvres.

All happened without screaming, panic or hassle. It was fun. The mechanic we met in the next village was a whole different story. We made it home safe and have good stories to tell.

This little incident just enforced what I strongly believe in. It is really important to experience things together. There are too many opportunities and adventures too be missed out. Girls can have quite a spectrum - bush-skill, outdoors and nail polish go together very well. I guess we guys can learn a lot here. 

 


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picture by Al Pyke 

 
Thomas Züllich, or - “t.z.” as most call him - is a German flyfisher & flytier living in Norway. His flydressing is based on old traditions as well as very modern and innovative methods of creating flies. You can book Thomas for guided trips, flytying classes and presentations. He regularly gives speeches and demonstrations at fly fishing fairs. Thomas is member of the ProTeam at Partridge of Redditch as well as Regal Vises. 

www.tzflyfishing.no

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