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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Flat

Yesterday was not the best bike commuting day I've had.

On my way in, about a mile from work, I noticed a suspicious sssp...sssp...sssp sound as my front wheel went around. Stopping at the next traffic light, I determined that it was indeed punctured and losing air. Fortunately, I've just started carrying a multi-tool, tire levers, patch kit and pump in my bag. It was raining, so I walked a little way to the Giant in Shaw to repair it on the covered sidewalk. When I got the tube out, it looked to be a "snakebite" puncture from the tube getting pinched...I had hit a pothole pretty hard the night before, so it may have just taken some time to work into a full-blown puncture. I patched it and got to work about 30 mins late.

On the way home, the weather had cleared up, and I was thinking as I left that getting my third flat since November was more than I'd like, but one every two months isn't that bad. Meanwhile, there's a lot of construction just north of my office and there is sometimes debris on the pavement. Crossing Mass Ave can be dicey traffic-wise, so I was paying attention to cars and didn't see the little twisted piece of metal on the street that resulted in a pop! ffft...ffft...ffft. (This is the first time I've heard the pop when hitting something.) But, having gotten some practice just that day at fixing flats, I was fairly speedy at it the second time!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh man! Getting one flat is bad - getting two is even worse! Congratulations on your ability to fix them (which was more than I was able to do with mine a few weeks ago!)

Teague said...

Thanks, Becky....I was left wondering if the supernatural effects of carrying flat-fixing supplies work in the opposite manner to carrying an umbrella.