Pinhole

I found the leaky spots in my two flat tubes from Saturday's ride at the Knob.  A pinhole in the same place on both tubes.  Hmmm... something pokey must be hiding in the tire, though I cannot find it even with the tire turned inside out.  Maybe it came out in the process of dismounting the tire.

Tube triage central.

Tonight Ryan and I went out for a night ride but it did not go as expected.  We rode through some standing water on Messner Road and were startled in the dark by Ryan's front tire exploding.  It sounded like a .22 pistol bark, and yes, the tire exploded, not just the tube.  The wire bead was protruding from the rubber.

 Of course neither of us had anything to use as a tire boot and it seemed like a call home was in order.  Searching the side of the road in the dark I found a McDonalds bag.  Inside I found the remnants of someone's breakfast including a packet of picante salsa.  Tear corner, squirt out salsa, and boot tire with the foil, plastic packet.  Perfect.  It worked surprisingly well and we didn't even take the shortest route home.  Thanks to someone for littering?

Knob by night and day

Tuesday this past week Noah and I went for a night hike at the Knob.  There were no bikes involved but it was a fun adventure in the dark.  Well, it was not as dark as it could have been due to the nearly full moon.  At times we turned our light off because the moonlight was sufficient to see.

Noah had a new Fenix flashlight that put out some very usable light.  I had my Cygolite bike light strapped to my helmet, which I've never done before, and a smaller Fenix flashlight.  It took us 2 hours to hike the trail from start to the top of the Furnace.  It made me realize a night ride on a mountain bike, with the right light, would not be as deathly as I had thought.  I'd want to know the trail for sure, but a bright night and bright head mounted light made riding look fun.



All that hiking in the dark made me want to ride, a not-so-suprising result of walking a mountain bike trail I suppose.  This afternoon I went to the knob again, this time with bike.  Yet another Saturday of perfect weather.  It was 54 degrees when I was driving, very nice for mid November.

I had a very enjoyable ride, taking my time, scanning the scenery, and breathing the fresh air.  Towards the end of the first lap I thought the bike was handling funny.  Is that wind pushing me around?  (It was gusty, especially outside the protection of the woods.)  No, that would be a front tire with about 0.75 psi in it.  I stopped to change out the tube.  I really did not spend much time trying to identify what kind of flat it was.

 I really do not do this often enough to

think about tubeless, but I'm thinking

about tubeless.

Back to the car after the first lap I pumped so more air into the front tire.  A single 12g CO2 cartridge lets you inflate and ride but it leaves you babying it until you can get more air.  Hmmm... ride more?  I'd like to, but no spare tube to carry.  Note to self: I should keep a couple spare tubes in the car.

I started a second lap hoping to not experience a second flat or I'd be walking or using a patch kit trailside.  The day was getting late and I still wanted to do yard work at home, so I figured I'd bail out at an access road crossing.  Well, I was having too much fun so I kept riding.

 The Cradle.

About 25 pedal strokes before emerging from the wood onto the furnace I once again wondered why the bike was handling funny.  Wow, the front tire is really noisy on the trail.  Yeah, it was flat again.  At the last tire change I had swept the inside of the tire looking for debris but never found it. 

So, I finished my ride the same way Noah and I finished our night hike, with a walk up the Furnace and back to the car.

First Flat

Went for a ride at Mohican today.  Not enough time for a full loop, so I parked at the main trail head and rode the road to the second trail head.

It was logging time at the second trail head.

I knew I was running low pressure (with tubes) and after a sharp impact on the rear wheel I flatted.  My first on the trail flat in a year and a half of mountain biking, can't complain I guess.

Shaky cell phone picture because I was trying

to stay in constant motion to deter the hungry mosquitos!

Final ride of the year... flats!

Ryan and I originally planned to do a night ride last night but he left work earlier than expected and we headed out in the afternoon.  We both left from our houses and rode towards each other on Messner Rd.  Just east of Fredericksburg Rd. I came upon Ryan stopped alongside the road, he was checking in with another cyclist who appeared to be changing a flat tire.  As I rolled up to the scene I realized it was Jeremy Grimm.

Back on the bike Jeremy joined us as we rode over to Honeytown and south to Fredericksburg.  It was good to chat with Jeremy and hear how he and his family have been.  We rode into Fredericksburg and climbed Harrison to the west.  Jeremy headed north on Nonpariel as we continued across 83 and onto County Line Road.

Aaron heading downhill on Force Road.

The day was overcast but warm for the season, the thermometer in the back yard showed 41 when I left the house.  Road conditions were wet from melted snow and the roads were covered with cinders.  It felt great to be outside on the bike.

We rode down Force Rd. to connect up with Cemetery Rd. and here began our problems.  Apparently the pre-ride adjustments I made to my front derailleur were not so good.  In a 500 yard section of road I managed to drop my chain to the outside and then inside.  Wow, that's a new one.  Stopped in the road and with Ryan holding my bike up I managed to get the chain back on and start rolling again.

About five minutes later we were on Cemetary Rd. and Ryan announced his rear tire was going flat.  No big deal, we stopped along side the road and got to work on a tube swap out.  Ryan searched for a foreign object in the tire and found none.  With a new tube, this one full of air, on the rear wheel we started rolling again... again.

Flat tire change #1 for the day.

"I've got some bad news..." Ryan stated a few minutes later.  His rear tire was flat again.  We pulled into a gravel parking area along side the road near the Killbuck marsh.  Ryan flipped his bike over and we both looked down to see bubbles puttering out of a hole in his wet tire.  I reached down and picked a pointy cinder out of the hole.  Wheel off, tube changed, tube inflated, wheel back on.  We started rolling again... again... again.

The culprit!

With our spare tubes exhausted another flat tire would result in a call for vehicular pickup alongside the road.  We rode up the old 226 bypass and turned west on Willow.  Just before reaching the Kister Mill Ryan called out, "my front tire is flat!"  I reached for my cell phone.

KT was glad to hear we were only a few miles from home and she picked us up in the truck.  Ryan announced we had set a new record, it was the first time the two of us had ever required a pick up on the road to get back home.  Oh well, it had some comic relief to it. 

Ryan is now shopping for new tires.

It was not the cleanest day on the road.

Expired tubes?

Well, let's replay my statement from two days ago:

Come to think of it, in my seven years of riding I can only recall three flat tires, including the one today.

And replace it with a new statement for today:
In my past three days of riding I've had two flat tires, including one today.

On the way home from work I was taking my usual short cut through the Boy's Village parking lot when I received a jarring shock from my rear wheel.  I looked back to see what I had hit and really didn't see anything. 

Hmmm... I paid attention to the bike for the next 30 seconds or so as I rolled along but all seemed well.  That is until I went to clip in after stopping at Back Orrville Road while on Geyers Chapel.  Apparently my rear tire had gone flat as I waited for traffic.  I slowly pedaled across Back Orrville Road on the rear rim and found a happy place alongside the road to swap tubes.

After thinking about how I had just made a blog post regarding my minimal experience with flat tires, I had to pause the tube replacement for a picture.

T

Temporary workshop on the SW corner of Back Orrville and Geyers Chapel.

So now I'm wondering if my current batch of tubes has passed their expiration date?  No matter, I'm out of tubes now anyhow and will have to restock!