Swipe your bank card and get a new inner tube, next to a repair stand to help you change it.
Mike Cobb sent me this photo of a vending machine outside the Green Zebra Grocery in Portland, Oregon, that sells Kenda brand bicycle inner tubes. These vending machines are more common in Germany and the Netherlands although I only spotted one in Berlin.
A tube vending machine, Fahrrad schläuche in German, outside a bike shop in Berlin.
He says they have a repair stand under shelter, air pump, tethered tools, and all-weather electricity outlets, too.
“Yeah, I’ll shop there every time I’m within a 1/2 mile,” he said. Mike is busy planning Disaster Relief Trials around the country this year and we’re working to make one happen in Chicago. But we need a title sponsor who has thousands of dollars to donate.
Mike in Seattle after winning DRT there. Photo by Fred Bretsch, FEMA Region 10.