Lesson Learned: Tire Go Boom!

Wow, all I can say is wow! So just to set this up for you the eldest so got his first mountain bike as an extremely well kept hand-me-down from grandpa. So I took it as an opportunity to show him some basic bike maintenance and checks before riding. The bike sat on the concrete all winter and hence the tires were toast. So I started by showing him how to put the front wheel back on, some basic brake checks, and that brought us to the air situation. The tires, again, were toast. Like, down to a whopping zero toast. So I precede to whip out ye olde Specialized Air Tool Comp and pump my little heart out. For those who are paying far too much attention, or just have as much free time as I do, you probably caught the following. I did NOT show him how to pull a wheel from a rim, I did not show him how to check tubes, more importantly I did not show him how to check rim strips. I say the latter because had I showed him how to check rim strips, I would have likely noticed they sucked and were not on properly, and I probably wouldn't have blown the tire completely (and literally) off the rim. That did, however, wind up being a good thing. Once our hearing recovered from blowing a tube directly next to our ears, I was able to show him how to pop a tire off a rim and replace rim strips, tubes, and tires. I guess not all bad, right?
Lesson Learned: Tires (more importantly tubes) get too big, go boom... and they go boom REALLY loud!