Cyclist's #1 enemy: Flat tires...

[Emett]

Rant about your last rash of flats here!  Yes, I know the always happen in bunches... it's a Quantum Universe!

....

Here I was, heading into work, when I felt that dreaded squishy almost slippery feeling of the back tire going flat. I actually did the right thing this time and was not late to work. Why start a road-side repair, which can fail or prove impossible, before at least trying to just pump it back up. Luckily it worked, and with just one other quick pump stop (before my last monster hill), I made it to my destination.

I wasn't really caught to much by surprize, because while I leave at about 06:00, checking my bike is one of the first things I do to get readly to go, so at 05:15 I was started fixing the flat I found in the rear. It held pressure, so I had to wonder if I should just ride it. But I could actually hear a pretty good hissing, so it'd be flat or too soft in less than 10 minutes. I repaired the tube, searched for glass or other issues with the tire, my rear Armadillo, surprized that something got through... I found lots of little pieces stuck in the rubber but nothing that made it through the Kevlar. I also repaired an old back up tube that has been waiting months for this to happen.

The tube repair worked, and the tire was double, triple checked, so I remounted the tube and tire and pumped it up all in good time to leave before 05:50. But then the pump attachment stuck to the tube valve and I broke the valve stem or it's seal removing the pump end! That sucked, and I can fix that, but it takes 24 hours for the glue to dry... So, after a whip job with mounting back-up tube, I got out of the house in time for a fast ride.

So, here I am at work, and I must go fix it again. Either the issue remains with the tube (embedded, hammered-in, glass), a new puncture occured, or I failed. I guess I might have missed another hole or multiple holes in the tube. Or the patch failed, it was the oldest patch I had... but most likely is that the patch-job failed or was ruined when I mounted the tire.

I guess I'll go try again with the rest of my lunch break. I'll be sure to note where the flat happened on the tire this time. :) Time to get busy!  (later: lining up the tube with the tire allowed a specific search of the area of the puncture, and there it was, between the treads and barely, just barely through the armor, the less than a cm long point of a  needle or wire still stuck in the tire.  I removed it with pliers.

peace -e

P.S., unpollute.ning.com looks good, and thanks thanks thanks to my members for keeping a steady heartbeat going with added pictures and blogs and everything while my life has been rather shaken up lately