Yesterday's Ride Home

SUCKED!

You already know about the weather from the morning, and when I left work things looked great.  It was partly cloudy, a light breeze and warm enough to not require knee warmers. 

I left work late enough to not have any student traffic near, which is always a good and safe thing.  Rode up the hill and turned left onto the road that will take me to the main drag.  I even caught the light, which rarely happens.  I was feeling good, and quickly approaching the long down hill.  Usually I hit speeds around 35, without hammering, luckily for me I did not.

Just as my speed really started to pick up, I heard a noise and felt the awful feeling of no air in my tire.  I slowly braked to a stop, got off my bike, and inspected my rear wheel.  Turns out I managed to puncture my sidewall, and lost all air.  The glue could not seal the hole, and that meant trouble.

As I said yesterday, I am the smartest man in my house, so I was prepared for an incident such as this...My wheels will work with or without a tube.  I proceeded to take off the tire, clean out the glue, unscrew the valve, insert my brand new tube, and begin the process of re-seating the tire. 

Getting the tire to re-seat was tough.  I could not believe how still the bead was, but it make sense because there is no tube applying pressure towards the rim.  I finally got the tire on, and started to fill the tube with air...The air would not take.  Turns out that my brand new tube had a hole in it.

Now I am 2 miles from school and nearly 19 miles from home, with no way to ride my bike.  My good friend E, drove by not knowing I was stranded and gave me a friendly honk.  I really considered showing him my appreciation, while also showing him he was #1 in my book, but alas I did not.  I called another friend, who shall remain nameless, but he did not have his phone on.  I called another friend, but he was in a meeting.  I called Bella, who works 45 minutes away, but she was not at her desk.  I finally remembered my sister-in-law lived about 3 miles away, and called her.

Thank you Valerie for coming to my rescue, driving me 45 minutes home, and humoring the fact that a pasty, white, skinny guy in spandex was in your car.

I now need to get a new tire, and try to patch the current tire.  I can easily say that the last 2 weeks have not been the best.

Good luck to all.