I set out riding the near in neighborhoods again, again searching for the leaf pick up crews. I found them today and they are, indeed, in my neighborhood. Unfortunately they haven't come to my street yet. I am hoping to get a video.
Along the way I found a suitable spot to participate in the daily photo blog theme day. This month's theme is "Walls or fences". Mine is a wall.
I have had some relatively unexplained or at least poorly understood flat tires this year. Today I heard the tire blow out and felt the instant flat while only about a mile from home. I considered briefly what I should do. I have been thinking recently about bragging about the relatively good tire wear one gets in cooler temperatures so I knew I had a little rubber left on my rear tire. I also knew that even so I was getting near the end of reasonable tire life back there. I am running Michelin ProRace on the Crown Jewel. I had one new ProRace in the basement. My plan has been to ride to the end of the season on the tires I have been using and then swap out just the rear. The rear wears much more rapidly than the front and I figured I get get one more full rotation out of the current front with the new rear. The plan is based on my need to use up my last ProRace and this is the way to do it. The issue with Pro Race is illustrated by the fact that on NewLOOK I am running ProRace3. Not even 2. 3. So with a flat a mile from home I just decided to suck it up and risk tire damage by riding home on the flat tire. That tire was not a valued asset at that point.But a mile on a flat tire is slow. Very, very slow.
As I was riding I kept hearing a thud on every tire revolution that I was having trouble identifying. Here's what the thud looked like after I pulled it out of the tire.
Yup, that will make your tire flat.What followed turned today's two hour ride into a four hour tire change nightmare. I ended up spending almost all of the part of the day when riding would have been pleasant with the rear wheel off my bicycle.
*sigh*
At first I wanted to do the right thing. I had the tire off, I patched the tube and even fashioned a boot for the tire. I reinstalled and tried for inflation. Reminder to self, check the repair before reinstalling. When I got everything apart again I discovered that that nail had gone all the way through and that there were two holes in the tube.
At this point I abandoned the right thing and did the smart thing. I chucked the tube and the tire and started over with new.
Note to self: Hey dummy, those metal levers are certainly way, way stronger than the plastic ones. But you have to be really, really careful with them. Installation is a little trickier anyway when the tire is brand new. I wan't careful enough and ripped the tube. Which I discovered after every thing was mounted on the bike. Whoosh said the tire.
So that nail cost me a chance to ride while it was sunny, it cost me a new tire, and it cost me TWO TUBES. But eventually I got back out and tried to get at least a few miles in. I was at the Fairgrounds about two and a half miles from home when it started to rain.
4 comments:
That's a nasty looking pointed object. Cement nail?
Interesting wall.
I might have switched bikes and changed tires later.
"Whoosh said the tire" is my favorite line in this sad saga. I was expecting a happy ride report. Sorry. I felt similarly during my teaching tonight. Hours spent preparing, eagerly anticipating, just to have a flat class.
Having proclaimed a love for numbers in my post today, it seemed like I should do the math. 7 miles?
That's a bummer... it's a shame to waste any day in November that is nice enough for biking with ho-hum tire maintenance.
Any leaf pick-up news today?
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