Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
What the devil am I doing wrong?
I went out this afternoon, to ride the bicycle to Northgate. I was all set to do the healthy, eco-friendly thing.
But as I pulled the bike from its little nook, what should I notice, but that the front tire was completely flat.
Now, several days ago, I rode out to Lowes, a mile and a half distant mostly via bike trail. As I was pulling into the parking lot, I noticed the bike felt mushy, and looked down to see my rear tire rapidly deflating. I hadn't run over any obvious hazards. When I found the leak, it was facing toward the rim again.
On the ride back, no problems. All seemed fine. Obviously not, though, as today the front was flat. Again, I didn't seem to hit anything -- why the flat?
I patched the hole, and it was facing right at the tire's bead. Ok, obviously something is wrong here. The two constants are me (ie, the mechanic's hand) and tires/rims/tubes. The tire isn't letting anything through (and in any case, the cuts are always facing the rim, where glass and the like can't hit the tube). I don't feel like I'm running over anything nasty, yet I appear to be getting pinch flats (I don't know what else to call them -- little tiny slits, as if a very tiny and restrained prison inmate shivved my tube shyly, just once to see if it worked).
I do hear an ominous crinkling sound as I inflate the tire after each patch. I had assumed it was the patch wrapping crinkling, but maybe it's something else. Whatever it is, this makes three flats in less than a month. On my previous bike (26" wheels vs. the 29ers I have now, and 1.75" wide tires vs. the 35mm/1.38" I have now), in 8 years of riding, not one flat. Never. This is just a little frustrating.
I guess on the positive side, this has forced me to be prepared for flats, and I'm rapidly figuring out how to deal with them. Now I just need to figure out how to prevent them. Also on the positive side, and completely aside from flats, I've managed three bicycle commuting days a week for two weeks. That's pretty damn good after many years of perhaps one bicycle day every 6 months.
Posted at 21:55 permanent link category: /bicycle
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater