It was one of those days when bad news and little troubles seemed to be coming at me from all directions. I couldn’t wait to leave the office and roll out for a short ride home. Unfortunately, ANOTHER flat tire awaited.
I sat on the grass with my flat tire supplies, completely deflated, with all my new-found enthusiasm for cycling drained from me. You don’t get flat tires in running. My experience with cycling has delivered more than an excessive amount — even for a rookie such as I.
I called up to my collegue and secured a ride home (in the carpool lane).
We arrived at my car, parked on the street near YaYa’s school, I unloaded my bike from one car and placed it into mine. My mood was quickly morphing from disappointment to dread.
With plans for an 80 mile SOLO long ride on Friday, and flats too numerous to want to count, I was a little more than anxious. The last thing I needed now was to be stranded on the side of the road and unable to secure help due to my plans to ride on a Friday. I decided that I needed to insure this did not happen. Or at least do my best to mitigate the risk.
After a bit of back and forth text messages, and a trip to the local bike store, I was en route to my mom’s house with new tires and tubes in hand. At a minimum, I would rid myself of the impossibly hard-to-remove tires that came with my bike and hopefully whatever was causing the chain of slow leaks that, no matter how many people looked for, no one could ever seemed to locate. Gaining a bit of traction in the process would be a bonus.
Still determined to master the art of flat tire repair, I had Bill oversee the process of tire and tube replacement. The new tires were so much easier to put on the rims. With a little help, we actually did it without tire irons.
With both my confidence and my tires re-inflated, I drove away with one less thing to worry about. And that is a very good thing.
Special thanks to Mom for taking the pictures AND for, once again, letting me steal time with your hubs. I love you!
Yep. Cycling depends a lot more on ‘stuff’ than running does doesn’t it? Every ride I have to pump the tires up to make sure they aren’t low, check brakes etc. Do you carry a pump or CO2?
I have a pump and a spare tube in my seat bag.
Haven’t had a flat yet but I’m sure it’s in my future. Also in my seat bag is a pair of surgical gloves and those tire removing lever thingees.
Related – this made me laugh.
https://plus.google.com/113675811845416780785/posts/JjjKTzJe4cF
Ride on with confidence. Sending good vibes for Friday.
Good to have helping family, eh?
I’ve only experienced one flat when El Bandito wasn’t there to fix it for me — and of course, that was the day I’d set out with *nothing* but my keys & id. No lock, no phone… Frustrating long walk home.
Sounds like you’re going to have a great ride tomorrow, with some of these hiccups out of the way. Ride safe, ride strong!
I shredded a tire 35 miles from the car…. lucky for me, the local sherrif was out in his 4 wheeler and he gave me a ride to a bike shop about 15 miles from the car :-) Fun times!
Hope you had a no drama ride today!