All posts by Alan Morgan

Sharing your location via Whatsapp

General interest

I’ve used Whatsapp for many years but have only recently looked into using the ‘location’ facility and on speaking with various folks it seems that many do not know about this very handy utility.

It seems to me that cyclists in particular could use this facility to great advantage when out and about, either solo or group riding. So here is a quick guide for Android smartphone users (with a supplementary note for Apple iPhones at the end).

Assuming the smartphone has GPS/Location Services enabled and Whatsapp is installed and mobile data is switched on...

Step 1

Open Whatsapp and under the CHATS tab, select a user to create a message in the normal way.

Step 2

In the message box area select the ‘paperclip’ icon and from the displayed options, select ‘location’.

Step 3

The next screen allows the option to ‘Send your current location’ or ‘Share live location’

Step 4

Assuming you select ‘Share live location’ you then have the option to share for either 15 mins, 1 hour or 8 hours. Plus the option to include a message in the ‘Add comment’ box.

Step 5

Send the message in the normal way – the sent message appears in the sent messages area which includes a ‘Stop sharing’ option if you which to terminate the share prematurely.

The recipient on receiving the message can on opening and clicking the Google map, see your current location updated at various intervals (but not if in Step 4 you selected ‘Send your current location’ which is just your location at the time of sending the message).

Note for Apple users

With the exception of Step 3, the procedure is I understand, broadly the same as for Android users. In Step 3 you will not see a ‘paperclip’ but instead hit the ‘+’ symbol to display the options.

Using a tyre boot

Bikes and accessories

Figure 1A tyre boot is a piece of material used in the temporary repair of damage to a bicycle tyre such as a cut to the tyre sidewall. Figure 1 shows a typical sidewall cut. You can see there is a danger that the inner tube will pop through the cut and burst. A tyre boot temporarily covers the cut to prevent the (repaired) inner tube from further damage. The method described here is not suitable for tubeless tyres.

There are a variety of methods and materials that can be used and the following description is but one of them and successfully used by the author.

Material

The material needs to be strong and thin without any sharp edges – strong enough to prevent the inner tube from poking through the cut whilst thin enough to 'wedge' unobtrusively in place, and of course have no sharp or irregular edges to damage the inner tube. Candidates for this include a piece of inner tube cut from a spare, a piece of leather, a £5 note/$1 bill or similar, and so on. In this article I use a piece cut from a toothpaste tube. The tube is plastic on the outer with a thin metallised covering on the inside. Figure 2 shows three pieces cut from one toothpaste tube.

Figure 2

Applying the Tyre Boot

Figure 3First, replace or repair the punctured inner tube, put a small amount of air in the inner tube and fit back under the tyre leaving one side of the tyre 'unhooked' from the wheel. Take one of the tyre boot strips and place it between the inner tube and the damaged part of the tyre wall, leaving the excess material protruding for the moment. Figure 3 shows this: note the yellow marks on the tyre which are used simply to show the location of the cut.

Fully fit the tyre back into place by easing the tyre bead over the wheel rim, trapping the tyre boot under the wheel rim bead hook and preventing the tyre boot from moving out of place during and after inflation. Figure 4a shows the tyre fully inflated with the metallised side of the tyre boot showing through the tyre wall cut. Using a sharp blade, cut the excess tyre boot away (cut down onto the wheel rim, NOT toward the tyre wall!). The trimmed result (Figure 4b) is a neat finish which at the time of writing has done 60 miles plus with no sign of weakening with the 700c x 25c tyre inflated to 7 Bar / 100 PSI.

Figure 4aFigure 4b

Finally, the tyre boot, wrapped around a hobby knife blade weighs about 2gms, costs pennies and fits neatly into the average puncture repair box. To include a tyre boot 'kit' into your repair outfit may well save you or a cycling buddy a long walk home!

Alan Morgan