Wednesday, August 28, 2013

1300km & Four Flats

Blur at 1300km
Hit the 1200km mark on Friday.  Did 30km on Sunday, biking to & from an Ingress meet up.  Just under 40 km on Monday biking to work, biking for Ingress and home.  So was feeling good about hitting 1300 km on Tuesday.

Went to get the bike out of the shed on Tues morning and the back tire was flat!  Not happy.  Took the car to work.  Came home, had to run some errands, watched Under the Dome...  Didn't get to changing the tire until it was way too dark.  Decided not ride.

This morning got up early to take a longer way to work, should be 26km instead of 17 km.  Got ~750m from home and the back tire blew out.  Most have screwed up the change in the dark.  Ok not too far from home, walked home switched the tire again and headed off to take the normal ride to work.  Got just north of Fish Creek (< 3km) and realized I was ridding on my rim.  No blow out, just a slow leak.  Two flats in one morning!

Called Sarah, as she was at home, and had her pick me up and take me to work.  High Fives for Daughters Who Can Drive!  Came home made sure to switch the tire with plenty of light and not rushing.  Got the tube in, inflated it.  Bounced the tire lightly, and it blew out.  Fourth flat in a day, and I didn't even get the last one on the bike!  Many words were spoken.  Ok mostly one one word repeated.

Checked the tube and this one had blown out right opposite the valve.  Checked the tire, no damage to the tire nothing to cause a blow out.  Wondered if I was over in flatting the tubes.  Checked the tire, was hard to find the print in the pattern of the tire but it was there, 120 PSI.  What?  I'd been doing 100 PSI since I switched back to these tires after the flood. Under inflating tires will give you the same types of flats as I was getting when I thought I had been screwing up the change up.  So I changed the tube again, and pumped it up to 120 PSI.

Went for a 21 km ride as I need 20.6 km to get to the 1300km mark.  And what a difference.  I've been feeling good about rides where I've hit 19 km/h as my average.  Well I averaged 21.9 km/h tonight!  What a blast!

Ok now to see if I can hit 1400km this weekend while in BC.  BTW bounus points if you can figure out why hitting 1400km this weekend is a big deal.

- Peace

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