The Flat Tire Project

A flat tire fix should be just that. But sometimes it becomes a project.

The scenario: My wife, her brother and his wife wanted to go to a huge plant store. For me this rates slightly above watching re runs of Mr. Rogers.

With a free hour to two I decided for a quick ride along the Erie Canal multi purpose path (which was near empty this cloudy week day morning) and the roads around it (where the path itself was not paved).

I got my bike out and off I went, about 10 miles outbound, turned around to return and pftt — got a flat tire in my front tire.

The project: As I removed the tire, I noticed that I had put my wife’s 650 wheel on my bike. This was both interesting and frustrating. Interesting because my cyclometer worked fine and my front brakes worked (though they had to be be rubbing on the tire instead of the rim). Frustrating becuase I had no 650 spare tube.

I did, however, have a patch kit. Since it has only been about ### years since I patched a tube, I figured its like riding a bike. You never really forget.
The patch actually worked.
The pinch (un-noticed, obviously) had other options when I put in the CO2.
Boom.
No more patches.
Fortunately, there was a bike shop about 1/4 mile away.
They had a 650 tube, but pointed out that my tire was ripped.
I had plenty of duct tape for just such an emergency.
Put the tube in, pumped it up.
The duct tape was not tight enough, so the tire would not slip between the front brakes.
The proper thing to do was let the air out and re do the duct tape.
The improper thing I did was omit the first part and BOOM.

Called my brother in law for a ride back.

You say you want more? There is more.

On the return home, I now need to replace the tire and tube. Just like fixing a flat.
However, my wife’s Continental Tires when new are extremely hard to get on her wheel.
Put a little air in the tube, seat it in the tire and all the air goes out. 3 times, 3 tubes.

Finally, on the fourth tube I did 2 hours meditation, achieved full zen and got it all together.

Writing about this is almost as tiring as doing it all.

Glenn