Foiled.
In an attempt to keep the New Year's Resolution I made day before yesterday, I set out on my ride today with a camera in the pocket where I normally put my jacket (thus, no jacket on the ride - but hey it was sunny and I would totally be back before dark!).
I planned my route so that I could ride along Grizzly Peak during the 5 o'clock hour and maybe get some shots of the sunset. But as I headed up Wildcat towards the ridge, I suddenly realized I had a flat front tire!
I got a flat one time a couple years ago. It was during a race. I got a spare wheel. I didn't have to actually fix the flat out on the road.
Ugh.
I dumped out my saddle bag.
I had no tire lever. There was a chain tool in there, but no lever.
I couldn't get the tire off.
I remembered that the tire was so tight when I initially put it on the wheel that I actually wasn't the one who got it on, I had to enlist the help of a boy at a shop.
Phooey (that's not actually what I said).
I realized I was cold.
I sat down.
I still couldn't get the tire off.
I tried the flat head screwdriver on my multitool as a makeshift lever. It didn't work.
Molly rode by at warp speed - "I'm doing an interval - I'll come back!"
I of course had made no progress by the time she came back a good 10 minutes later.
We saw no other cyclists.
We both struggled.
"Funny that the only other person out here is equally incompetent at fixing these things!" she said.
We laughed.
And then we gave up. I filled the old tube-and-tire combo with a CO2 cartridge, and rode gingerly and shiveringly down the hill to BART via LaMorinda Cyclery, where I paid a nice boy to please fix my dumb wheel for me while I played with the dog.
So anyway, my attempt at taking pretty pictures for my blog was soundly foiled. Sorry! Maybe tomorrow, when I will arrange my pockets to accomodate a camera, a jacket, AND multiple tire levers.
*****************************************************************************
P.S. Here's karma for you - today I sent a slightly petty email to a co-worker about not using ginormous sharp heavy-duty staples on stuff that's like 10 pages thick because I cut my finger on one of her staple arrangements that had all this extra heavy-duty-staple-metal sticking out.
It was a staple that gave me the flat tire.
I planned my route so that I could ride along Grizzly Peak during the 5 o'clock hour and maybe get some shots of the sunset. But as I headed up Wildcat towards the ridge, I suddenly realized I had a flat front tire!
I got a flat one time a couple years ago. It was during a race. I got a spare wheel. I didn't have to actually fix the flat out on the road.
Ugh.
I dumped out my saddle bag.
I had no tire lever. There was a chain tool in there, but no lever.
I couldn't get the tire off.
I remembered that the tire was so tight when I initially put it on the wheel that I actually wasn't the one who got it on, I had to enlist the help of a boy at a shop.
Phooey (that's not actually what I said).
I realized I was cold.
I sat down.
I still couldn't get the tire off.
I tried the flat head screwdriver on my multitool as a makeshift lever. It didn't work.
Molly rode by at warp speed - "I'm doing an interval - I'll come back!"
I of course had made no progress by the time she came back a good 10 minutes later.
We saw no other cyclists.
We both struggled.
"Funny that the only other person out here is equally incompetent at fixing these things!" she said.
We laughed.
And then we gave up. I filled the old tube-and-tire combo with a CO2 cartridge, and rode gingerly and shiveringly down the hill to BART via LaMorinda Cyclery, where I paid a nice boy to please fix my dumb wheel for me while I played with the dog.
So anyway, my attempt at taking pretty pictures for my blog was soundly foiled. Sorry! Maybe tomorrow, when I will arrange my pockets to accomodate a camera, a jacket, AND multiple tire levers.
*****************************************************************************
P.S. Here's karma for you - today I sent a slightly petty email to a co-worker about not using ginormous sharp heavy-duty staples on stuff that's like 10 pages thick because I cut my finger on one of her staple arrangements that had all this extra heavy-duty-staple-metal sticking out.
It was a staple that gave me the flat tire.
Labels: bikes, enjoy the blog
posted by Courtenay at 1/31/2007
6 Comments:
you should've taken a photo of the nice boy you paid to fix your flat!
where's that support car when you need it!
staples! when I worked at Schwab and commuted by bike I suddenly got a run of flats. it was staples from storing my bike in my cube.
i hope you bought a tire lever while you were there...
I can't believe you've never gottena flat out on the road before. That's amazing.
Ditto Tracie. One flat a few years ago? What kind of tires do you run?
I haven't gotten my Maxxis tires yet for this year so I am making do with what I have in the closet... Last year I had Ritchey tires, the year before that I used the Continental force-attack combo, I also got some of Devon's Hutchison hand-me-downs - I just try to be really vigilant about replacing them and brushing off glass and debris.
I did get a flat while riding in the fall, but in the interest of efficiency, Devon fixed it for me!
I live a charmed life...
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