I took three walks in the midday sun this past week.
Tuesday, my wonderful wife agreed to walk with me along the C&O canal from Old Angler's Inn to the Great Falls Visitor Center, a distance of just about 2 miles each way. It's a wonderfully beautiful place. But it was pretty darned hot, I have to admit.
Thursday, I biked out to Reston. As I was about to head home, I realized that my tire was flat. Again. I must have had a dozen flats in the last month. Well, there was nothing for it this time but to drop the bike off at a nearby shop and hike my way home. That's close to 8 miles, again in the middle of the day, and with temperatures again in the 90s.
Friday, leery of another flat, I decided to bike close to home. I wouldn't go more than a mile or two in any direction. Well, I guess I went 3. The tire was fine after 1 mile. And it was fine after 2 miles. After 3 miles, however, not. Still, this wound up being much the shortest walk I did during the week, and it was several hours earlier that the other walks. This time I was dragging a bike along, however.
Postscript: Three different bike shops have now failed to figure out what's causing the flats. And I've spent a pretty good sum on labor, tubes, and CO2 cartridges. Today I spent some more money and put a new tire on. We'll see whether that helps. If not, I guess the next step is to take the bike to the dump.
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2 comments:
The next time that you have the tire off the rim, take a look at the rubber strip that separates the tube from the rim. Sometimes the anchor points for the spokes, inside the rim, have a way of becomming a "sore" spot against the tube.
Jack
Been there and done that, Jack. Repeatedly.
It's really the darndest thing. If you hold the tube so that the valve is at 12 o'clock, punctures have occurred at 4 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 11 o'clock, and various points in between. And all, I think, have been on the outer half of the tube (as opposed to the inner half near the rim and spokes).
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