Well, the puncture fairy got me good and proper tonight after a blemish-free decade.
On a rare excursion along a psychlepaths (that's somewhere I'm not going again) my back tyre exploded. There's a 10mm cut in the sidewall - obviously caused by glass - and the tube had poked out and popped. I pulled out the tube (this is on the track bike, and I don't carry a spanner for the wheel nuts), patched the thankfully not-too-large cut and while that was drying found a Lambert and Butler packet in the undergrowth [1] to make a boot for the tyre.
Reinflated with CO2 to a moderate pressure and heroically declining the offers of a local couple to use their home phone, rode off. I got within a mile of home before it exploded again as the boot finally gave up. Fair enough, I thought, and walked the last 20 minutes in my socks to save my cleats.
I suppose I really ought to moan at the council - I've never seen anyone sweep a psychlepath in Swindon and the local yoofs do like to smash bottles on them for entertainment.
[1] the advantage of puncturing in a council estate!
Well, the puncture fairy got me good and proper tonight after a blemish-free decade.
On a rare excursion along a psychlepaths (that's somewhere I'm not going again) my back tyre exploded. There's a 10mm cut in the sidewall - obviously caused by glass - and the tube had poked out and popped. I pulled out the tube (this is on the track bike, and I don't carry a spanner for the wheel nuts), patched the thankfully not-too-large cut and while that was drying found a Lambert and Butler packet in the undergrowth [1] to make a boot for the tyre.
Reinflated with CO2 to a moderate pressure and heroically declining the offers of a local couple to use their home phone, rode off. I got within a mile of home before it exploded again as the boot finally gave up. Fair enough, I thought, and walked the last 20 minutes in my socks to save my cleats.
I suppose I really ought to moan at the council - I've never seen anyone sweep a psychlepath in Swindon and the local yoofs do like to smash bottles on them for entertainment.
[1] the advantage of puncturing in a council estate!
Why not cary a foldable tyre, spare tube, and a spanner to get the rear wheel off ??? Save a lot of hassle / walking if your out in the sticks ............
Why not cary a foldable tyre, spare tube, and a spanner to get the rear wheel off ??? Save a lot of hassle / walking if your out in the sticks ............
I now have some Park tyre boots. Somewhat more weight-efficient.
I guess you think Dunhill are a better class of cancer sticks.
Heh. You just don't get as much litter in the "nice" estates (but then passers-by probably wouldn't offer you their phone either).
And in teh really 'nice' estates (manned guardhouses at teh gated entrances, that kind of thing - we have a few round here) you don't get so much as a fallen leaf littering up teh place.
Mind you, you don't get to cycle through them either.
