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4 flats on one (road bike) ride!
From yesterday's almost-daily diary entry
You may view it with photos & more information at www.ChainReaction.com/sixflattires.htm 12/09/04- SO WHAT REALLY HAPPENS WHEN YOU WAKE UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED? I think I know now. It causes you to make a wrong decision, the consequences of which seem way out of proportion. This happened to me today, as I woke up for my regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride, looked out the window and saw that the roads were still wet. It hadn't rained in several hours though, and the sun was making an effort to come out. So did I really need to ride my rain bike? No way. Besides, what's the worst that can happen? My 5900 needed an excuse for a good cleaning anyway! What's the worst that can happen, indeed. Nice company today, with Rob, Karl, Kevin & Ueyn showing up... and I even felt like I was up to the challenge, probably because I was on my 5900, which feels so much faster than the Iron Pig (my Cinelli rain bike). And I was doing fine, until, just past the park entrance, I'm riding on my rim. 8:09am, first flat. So we stop and replace my tube and continue on our way. The adrenalin kicks in a bit (from what?) and I'm feeling pretty darned good until... 8:25am, second flat, near the open section on King's. OK, I don't get flats (Ueyn's probably ridden with me over 50 times and never seen me get a flat), maybe I'm due and this gets them out of the way for awhile? So I put in another new tube and we're on our way again. Sort of. At the top of King's, Ueyn has a flat! Ueyn actually got two flats on this ride, but I don't recall if this was his first or second; they all began to blur into each other. In the photo, you can see his remarkable using-teeth-as-3rd-hand technique to keep his tube off the ground. It's now 8:42am, and we're thinking that maybe doing the Old Lahonda loop might be a bit risky, so we opt for one of the dead-end drop-into-hell roads that heads west from Skyline. Until 8:58am, when I get my third flat on Tunitas Creek (as we were heading towards Star Hill). You've got to be kidding, I'm thinking not-entirely-to-myself as I deal with replacing yet another tube in the gray misty muck. But I replace it and gamely move on, making it up over the small grade on Star Hill and heading down towards Native Sons Road when, at 9:15am, flat number four!!! At this point I wave the rest of the guys on (it's an out-and-back road anyway, so if I'm stranded for some reason they'll be coming past again on the way back) and, with Ueyn staying behind to make sure I didn't lose my marbles, I removed the tube and found that it had probably been damaged before it ever got into the tire and, in one of those strange guy moments where you have to show an inanimate object who's boss, I repaired it instead of replacing it with a new one. From there Ueyn & I rode back up to Skyline and down into Woodside, without any further incident. I'm not sure, but I think I've gotten my flats out of the way for some time... and also learned a lesson about why one has a rain bike, with heavier, tougher tires... and why you'd ride it when the roads are such a mess, even though it's not raining out. Irrational acts of defiance, particularly against the forces of nature, rarely seem to pay off! We've put up a temporary web page with more exciting flat-tire-changing photos at www.ChainReaction.com/sixflattires.htm --Mike Jacoubowsky Chain Reaction Bicycles www.ChainReaction.com IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member |
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