Got a flat tire on my bike ride today in NJ. You can see the incompleteness of my route in the picture. This was not supposed to be a point-to-point ride 🙂
I’ve been trying to ease back into biking, in the lead up to the March Madness Biathlon, which is coming up in 2 weeks. I decided to try and ride at my weekend house in NJ. I just love riding my bike out in NJ. There are limited traffic lights, limited traffic, and lots of country roads with shoulders and room to ride. It is so refreshing not to have to first get somewhere, like Central Park or West Side Highway or to the outer reaches of Queens or Brooklyn, before getting into a good riding rhythm. I can get right to it practically outside my door.
I intended for this to be a 12 mile loop. I was a little discouraged by the fairly strong wind, which I was riding into to start. That would mean I would be with the wind to finish up and I was really looking forward to that part. However, I would never get there. About 6.5 miles into the ride, I could hear the telltale sound and bumpy ride indicating a flat tire. My first thought was that this would not be a problem because I have my patch kit. This would be a good practice for tire patching, and I’d be back on my way in no time. My second thought was that I forgot to bring a spare tube with me, so that if I had a problem patching it, I would be stuck.
I got the tire off, and the tube out, fairly easily, and found the problem spot. Unfortunately, when I dug into my patch kit, I found that the rubber cement was in bad shape. My kit is old, I think almost 3 years now, and the glue was just mostly dried up. I did the best I could, but after 30 minutes, 2 attempts to ride, and running out of CO2 to pump it up, I knew it was a lost cause. My wife doesn’t drive, and so I needed to call a cab to get picked up (how embarrassing).
Anyway, lesson learned. I always need to have my spare tube with me, and need to make sure my patch kit is fairly fresh. Although the ride was short, it was a good one, into the wind, and tending uphill, so a good workout with an elevated heartrate. Looking forward to getting out on my bike again soon…
