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Fake flat tire
There I was, riding through the city park with a tailwind helping me
to pass half a dozen cars as they crept over the speed bumps, about a minute and a half from home, when . . . Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! That's how a Slime tube sometimes announces a hole too big to plug. The abrupt high-pressure spray makes a whoosh-whoosh-whoosh noise as it whips past the frame or the ground or something. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Huh? I've never had an abrupt flat tire with the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh this close to home. The goatheads, rock chips, russian olive thorns, glass, and other debris end about two miles before here. Putting hole in a tire in the city park is about as likely as getting a flat on a trainer. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Braking gently, I'm puzzled because my front tire is going whoosh-whoosh-whoosh, but I can't see any green Slime or even a flattening tire when I risk a quick peek. Whoosh . . . When I stop, silence follows a final gentle whoosh. Huh? The air should still be hissing out of my front tire. And my front tire isn't flat at all, even when I lean on it. So I push my bike forward a little. A scrap of almost invisible plastic wrap, stuck to my tire with something dark and unspeakable, makes a little whooshing noise, exactly like a Slime tube flat, as the tire drags it past the fork and brake pads. Cheers, Carl Fogel |
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Fake flat tire
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Fake flat tire
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Fake flat tire
On Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:26:22 -0700, Colin Campbell
wrote: Then your flat tire count is still stuck at only 14 for the year! Poor boy.... Dear Colin, Er . . . [Quick nervous trip to garage to check that neither tire slow-leaked overnight, no green slime drops oozing out.] Right! Cheers, Carl Fogel |
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Fake flat tire
On Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:26:22 -0700, Colin Campbell
wrote: Then your flat tire count is still stuck at only 14 for the year! Poor boy.... Dear Colin, Actually, lucky boy! After today's ride, I flipped my bike upside-down and spun the tires: http://i26.tinypic.com/r1bmkl.jpg http://i25.tinypic.com/a3mvzk.jpg The green ooze seeping out the cracked casing means that it's going to be flat #15 when I pluck that goathead out . . . Sure enough, air hissed out when I pulled the goathead from the side of the rear tire. Here's the tube, lying on the tire, with red circles around the two new punctures: http://i32.tinypic.com/fx6sty.jpg Yes, two punctures--another goathead thorn can be felt where it broke off in the tire, about a foot away from that exhibitionist goathead. The two faint smears of Slime show how little mess can be involved. The toothpicks mark six previous patches. Inflation presses the tube so hard against the inside of the tire that the Slime follows the bias of the tire threads when it leaks, leaving oddly diagonal smears on the inner tube. So that tube lasted six days. But it got me home again, which is why I use Slime tubes. Time to dig the other thorn out of the tire, put in a new tube, and apply two patches, luckily at the workbench after dinner instead of by the side of the road during the rain shower. Cheers, Carl Fogel |
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