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Old July 16th 06, 10:39 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Mike Causer
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Posts: 301
Default Four punctures and three patches.

You would have thought that 3 patches in the puncture kit would be
sufficient for a gentle 20km pootle, including a river-bank I haven't
traversed before, wouldn't you? No, there were 4 holes. One I found
right away, very ragged, glass probably. The next two were sharp grit
still in the tyre, funnily enough the same coloured grit that "S" use on
the section of NCN11 that I'd just ridden along. The fourth was a thorn.

Resigning myself to stopping every 3-4 minutes on the nominally
half-hour ride home, the first time I stopped to pump was alongside a
narrow-boat tied up in the lode. The owner stepped out and asked how I
found the bank on the small wheels of the Moulton. He had a Bickerton
but didn't ride it on unsurfaced tracks, "too flexy". (He also had an
MTB on which he did 6km each way along the lode for food shopping.)
I said that the Moulton didn't flex, but that I wouldn't be doing that
section of bank again on it, too rough and too many P*nct*r* Fa*r*es
hiding in the bushes. Out of patches? Hang on, he's got some close at
hand.

So the last hole was patched and I made it home before dark without
stopping again, after a conversation including the building of De Haviland
Goblin centrifugal jet-turbine engines -- he must have been a lot older
than he looked.....


There's a Schwalbe Marathon Slick replacement tyre already in stock
under my workbench in the garage, and a new tube too, so that should
stave off PF visits for a while. In fact once the new tyre is fitted all
the roadworthy bikes will be on Schwalbes [unpaid product endorsement].



Mike

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