Last week found me having a really good old British moan about the dull
grey and rainy weather we all seem to be having here in the UK. After all, we’re in the middle of May and I
really cant recall a run of weather this poor, this grey and this rainy for
many years.
Thankfully things were pretty much all change over this past weekend with
sunshine and warmish ambient temperatures from the Friday afternoon to the
Sunday early evening.
Like many others I took the chance to actually get outside and do some
riding in the Berkshire hills away from
the turbo which of course made for a welcome change. Sadly some other annoyance made an unwelcome
return which pretty much ruined all three of my rides over the weekend.
Three Rides & 5 Punctures.
Yep. That’s quite correct.
This weekend found me getting 5
punctures over the course of 3 rides – I never thought that possible…. Interestingly and perhaps a measure of the rubbish
that’s found its way onto the roads over the past few weeks of poor weather
only one of these flats came from a pinch.
The other 4 were from bits of flint getting through the tyre or in the
worst case (see pic below) a stone had ripped open the sidewall of the tyre.
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| Above: Front Tyre Ripped Sidewall. 40 - 0 kms/h in secs |
This no doubt was one of the most
scary things that has happen to me on the bike for some time. I didn’t see whatever it was that caused the
tear although I certainly heard the bang and hissing noise as the front inner
tube deflated in a matter of seconds.
This brought me to rapid and very undignified stop in the middle of a
narrow little country lane with high hedgerow either side leaving me somewhat
exposed as I figured a way out of the predicament.
Upon inspection it quickly dawned
on me that my tyre with its ripped sidewall was pretty much toast and I’d have
to work out a quick fix to be able to ride the bike home. Up stepped a used Torq nutrition bar which I
inserted into the cavity between a new inner tube and the tyre. Upon reflation the wrapper made a suitable,
if a little fragile, seal against the tube being exposed to other ride side
debris and from the rim itself which would probably have caused a pinch flat
had I tried to ride the bike home.
As it was, I made it back the 35
mins home without further incident which certainly offset the moodiness of
getting the puncture in the first place.
As for the 4 other punctures I
had over the weekend, well those are altogether different stories and ones I’m
certainly not going to bore anyone with…. For now at least.
I’ll be off to buy a few more
inner tubes and CO2 canisters……….
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