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November 25, 2007
The Thanksgiving Bike Ride
I finished the post of two days ago with: Be sure to come back to read about my bicycle trip. And then, of course, I didn't blog about it. I The next post was about delayed onset muscle soreness (a fancy way of saying I had trouble walking after playing basketball).
Today, finally, the post about the bicycling in Franklin. It was written Thanksgiving day.
When I'd loaded the bike up I'd noticed the back tire was flat. I wasn't terribly surprised as I'd ridden through something the night before and, well, things like this happen. I typically have an extra inner tube with me so this wasn't a big deal. When I went to change the tube, after we had Thanksgiving, I was a bit surprised at the size of the hole and the lack of any corresponding hole in the tire itself. The tube looked like someone had used a 3-hole punch to remove a bit of it. It was apparent that it had failed after I put the bike up after the last ride as a hole this size would have resulted in an immediate flat. Ah well. I figured I had tube with a weak spot. I put the new tube in and pumped the tire up. As I stepped back from the bike the new tube blew. WTF? I had, believe it or not, even another tube with me (This surprised dad and led him to comment that when he was little they were lucky to have one extra tube.). That tube, I'd patched and, well, I just wasn't happy with it. I went to Wal-Mart and picked up the last 27 x 1/4 tube they had. I put it on the bike and pumped it up. Samson, my helper throughout all of this, looked at my work and said, "Dad, there's something over here." The something was a sidewall failure that was allowing the tube to bulge out between the tire and the rim. Even as I guessed that the soon-to-come micro-explosion would leave a hole that looked like someone took a 3-hole punch to the tire, I got busy letting the air out of it. Back to Wal-Mart for a tire. Of course, they didn't have one. I have one on a shelf in my garage, 90 miles away from where I am now. There was no ride and, so far, no pictures of the cute little town I grew up in. Posted by delmer at November 25, 2007 12:06 AM Start carrying a spare tire like this: http://www.linkwood.ch/coppi/fausto_coppi/coppi_1952.jpg Posted by: Bill at November 25, 2007 6:47 AM That guy's taken an approach even I don't use. I normally have an inner tube, tools, patches, water, some sort of slime in a can, and a pump, but no, actual, extra tire. Posted by: delmer at November 25, 2007 10:47 AM Some sort of slime in a can??? Is that legal? Posted by: Pen at November 25, 2007 3:33 PM As long as it's in the can it's OK. It's like Fix-A-Flat except for a bicycle. (Fix-A-Flat is a can of compressed air with slime in it, you attach it to a tire valve and fill and seal the tire.) Posted by: delmer at November 25, 2007 4:24 PM Thanks for clearing that up! Slime is all the rage in cycling circles, I guess? Posted by: Pen at November 25, 2007 5:08 PM I don't know if it's a rage or not ... I sort of pedal around by myself and I've only used the product once -- it did fix the flat well enough that I finished the ride. (For anybody following this -- I have a slime-like product ... not the honest-to-God Slime Tire Sealant.) Posted by: delmer at November 25, 2007 6:37 PM We have so much in common, we should be BFF's. For example, I too typically have an extra inner tube with me. I don't have a bike, but just knowing the inner tube is there makes me feel better. Posted by: Sher at November 25, 2007 7:30 PM Sher: Yours sounds like it might be an interesting purse to dig through. Posted by: delmer at November 27, 2007 10:16 AM
new, hip, gynecologist.Comments
