Greetings from the SPS Cyclists! We're here in the small town of Minnewauken, ND, enjoying a lovely batch of S'more Pop Tarts.
Today was one of our biggest challenges yet, because the bike mileage was the largest of the entire trip: 130 miles. Prepping ourselves mentally for the feat was tough enough, but actually getting through the day turned out to be tougher than we expected (at least for some--more on that later). After finishing our breakfast, we hit Route 2 with gusto. We made excellent time to our first snack stop at mile 40 of our day. While the rest of the group went off after some locally-grown watermelon, I realized that my chain had fallen off of my bike. Frantically, I tried to put it back on, but by the time I had done so the group had disappeared ahead. Hoping to catch up with the group, I got on my bike, pedaled a couple of revolutions...and got a flat. Not too far away from the support vehicle that had all of our extra equipment, I walked back to the snack spot with my bike. While changing the tire, I saw Renzo, biking the opposite way, back towards our support vehicle, because he had realized that I was not with the group. We changed the tire, then continued on our way. And we were flying, trying with all of our might to catch up to the group....until Renzo ran over a shard of glass and got a flat. Seeing the support vehicle right behind us on the road, we flagged it down to get more bike tubes from them. We changed the flat with a patched tube, put it back onto place on the bike...and the patch on the tube popped! So we tried again, and this time we got a hole in the tube right underneath the hole in the tire. By that time, the support vehicle had left and we were stuck on the road with no more tubes. We phoned the support vehicle, who were waiting at the lunch stop for the other cyclists. They came back half an hour later, and we changed the whole thing, tire and tube. With that, Renzo and I powered it on the road. We got to lunch, and then just kept on going. We made it to Minnewauken soon after the girls, and couldn't move for fifteen minutes afterwards. Oh yeah, it was that extreme.
Renzo's Recollection of the day:
That was some intense riding. I can't move. I think we took it to the max today.
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Maybe you're already doing all this stuff but here are some tips on flat prevention and repairs
ReplyDeletetire pressure- make sure tire pressure is at the recommended level. A slightly soft tire is inviting a "pinch flat" -also known as a snakebite. This is where you ride over a pothole, rock, RR track or some other bump and compress the tire until it pinches between the rock and the rim.
If you've flatted from running over a sharp object- glass, metal shard, etc.- once you have removed the tire, run your finger around the inside (CAREFULLY) to see if the cause of the flat is still sticking through. It could be something as small as a raspberry thorn that worked it's way through the tire over many miles. Nothing worse than immediately flatting again after putting in a nice new tube.
If there is a cut or small hole in the tire, a new tube may push a bubble through the tire when you inflate it and pop as soon a you ride on it. If you find a defect like that in the tire, and the sag wagon is not available to give you a new tire, you can use electrical or duct tape as a temporary patch. If you don't have any tape, a dollar bill will do in a pinch.
See you guys in New York!
Pete the Maintenance guy
Hey guys! Way to go! 130 mile is a huge distance. Can't wait to catch up with you all through VT!
ReplyDeletepicture of you guys in shelby
ReplyDeletehttp://twitpic.com/82o7d