Tires | Bike Goddess

We had Monday off for Presidents Day and so Tuesday felt like Monday and it was the beginning of the work week so I take off on my morning commute and I’m about 2 miles from my house near the church with the substantial parking lot. As I crossed the busy intersection it sounds like a small train is behind me and of course I have a flat. I stop at the church which is weirdly THE PLACE where my last two flats have been and I call my husband who thankfully comes to my rescue to deliver me to school to still be early. He also trasports my bike to the shop to have the flat fixed and get the liners to help with this in the future.

It was a construction staple that took us down. I hate those things. How can something so small be so hideous and flatten an otherwise perfect morning? This is why people don’t ride or want to ride. They hate flats and they are terrified they will be helpless by the side of the road in a church parking lot waiting for help. Plus it’s a staple and those are supposed to bind, to keep things together and yet the irony is that it punctured my beautiful nubby tires and pierced the tube so much that it will need to be replaced. I have had so many flats over the years and it’s always the same story. Some little thing topples the plan. I’ve fixed some but mostly I prefer a mechanic to do it becuase they are fast and far more adept at it.

I should have taken the side road I chide myself. I wanted to but I thought since the roads were a tad icy that maybe I should stay on the main drag and this is the thanks I get. By the time my husband gets to me I am as deflated as my tire but I’m also feeling like the day is doomed.

By the time you are 2 miles into a ride, you’re IN! The cold air is bracing and yet you are out there doing it and feeling all the feels and I’m listening to a new book and all is well with my soul as the spiritual hymn says.

I see our little red electric mini turn into the parking lot and we load my bike on the rack. We are quiet on the drive just thinking about what needs to get done and still sort of waking up and considering more coffee but don’t want to take the time to stop. How do I not have protective tire liners and how can such a small staple kill my tire? I’ll get to school still early enough that no one would know my drama. I’m pondering the list of things I need to do to pump up my morning, but all in all, the tire is what’s on my mind. The tire and the concept behind a spare because this is my second tire incident in the new year.

About two weeks ago a colleague of mine and I were heading north to Olympia, Washington, the State capitol to testify and meet with legislators about some House and Senate bills. It’s called Legislative Day and it’s such a great experience. This is the second time I’ve participated. It’s invogorating to meet with representitives and senators about what concerns you and how you want them to vote on bills.

But on the car ride we both had a first time experience with car tires. CARS! She was driving and it sounded like a train was behind us. The freeway does run parallel to the tracks but the sound was deafening. It was as if the train was tailgating us. Do you have a flat? What does a flat on a car even sound like I remember thinking. The thumping, rock tumbler, gravel grating was a roar I’ve never heard before. I am old and I have never experienced a car flat. I don’t know anything about car tires except that they use the Schrader valve (same as some bikes).

I checked the passenger side mirror and no, it was not a flat on that side of the vehicle. It was the driver side.

Now, we’re both librarians and we know things but this is not an area of expertise for either of us. We’re bookish women, who are teachers and feminists and we do it ourselves but we don’t know how. We could get a YouTube video, but there’s the whol jack thing, right? Where does that even go? We’ve never been here before so maybe we do need some assistance. She checks on the spare and I head into the quickie mart to see if someone could talk us through it. Just before I open the doors there’s a woman putting oil in her engine and we catch eachother’s eye.

Hey, would you be willing to help a couple of library women learn how to change a car tire. Sure she says as if it’s really is all an adventure. I’d love to! Wow, I think, we’ve hit the lottery! Her name is Candace and she drives a truck and she helps us with the jack which frankly looks like it couldn’t lift a 4th grader let alone a 5000 pound SUV.

Typically cyclists don’t have a spare tire in the same way you do on a car. Just sitting back there in the boot waiting for it’s occasion of glory. The moment the understudy in the theater of transportation comes onstage to take its turn. Having a patch kit, or a spare tube or CO2 or a packable, yet highly rated pump to save the day isn’t even close, really.

NASCAR called and they want us for a pit crew. Candace did most of the work but we helped by giving her some great new book titles to read. I marveled at how fast and efficient the process was versus changing a bike tire. Put side by side I wonder which would take longer and I still think changing, patching or in any way dealing with a bike tire takes more time.

You can triple check your tires (either bike or car) and you can always have patch kits and all the accoutrement for dealing with flats but they still happen and they require time to change and adjust. Like the spare on the car felt weird and wobbly to the driver. But the spare is temporary until a new proper tire can be installed.

Then of course that all leads me to thinking about Prince Harry and being a spare king (recent royal memoir) riding along never knowing when your moment to come out of the boot and into the spotlight will come. You can’t overthink stuff like that though because otherwise you’ll never get on the road of life and ride. I guess the lesson is to keep learning and growing and recognize that staples and screws are part of the path we’re all on and it’s good to have people in the pit ready to help us out and get us back on the road.

Thank YOU dear readers for being out there and sharing in my somewhat off the beaten track adventures. I love your Likes and it’s nice to know that out there someone gets me.

Have a brilliant day!

Bike Goddess

The day is dawning and you’re feeling invincible. You race the birds and you tell the squirrels to scoot and shoo and get up the trees and it seems like you’re the only one on the roads. Two miles, three, five… then you get your sixth flat.

Six flats in five months and two of them were in the garage when the bike was parked. Not a good way to start any day. It’s one of the top three reasons people stop riding a bike. That’s based on pure opinion and informal chitchat with people who claim they stopped riding a bike years ago because they could get a flat. When people start talking about what they hate about bike riding, flat tires are in close proximity to the other classic reason, “Because it makes my butt hurt.” For me, this summer was all about getting under the rim of the whole issue of my flat tires.

I’ve biked for as long as I can recall and I have commuted for 20 years. I ride all the time. What’s the “normal” amount of flats a rider might get? I have no idea. My normal was about twice a year. Usually there was a giant nail involved. Sometimes a staple that didn’t look like much but ends up being a slow leak. Nothing too extreme. I’m a fanatic about checking my tires, so for me this flat issue is out of the ordinary.

Over the summer that changed significantly. Let’s say that I was thinking by the time I had my third flat that I should learn the fine art of fixing a tire. In July, that’s what I did. Good for me, right? I learned and when I had my fourth flat, I fixed it and thought that was it. The bike gods were testing me.

I was gone for three weeks and did not ride the bike experiencing all the flats. Then I started to analyze the number of flats. Six flats in 13 weeks seems out of the norm. Seems extreme and even careless, as if I’m intentionally riding in glass or looking for contruction sites and purposely riding in lanes made of tacks or something. I was flummuxed. Was it the tire? I was thinking my bike hated me and I needed some sort of tire-exorcism. Did someone have a voodoo bike and puncturing the tires?

Two weeks ago, I went on a 30 mile ride and I came home and parked my bike in the garage just like always. I looked over the tires and everything seemed fine. They were inflated. Then it happened again. I went to the garage the next morning and I had another flat. Can you imagine my utter shock and dismay at the whole situation?

Later in the day I drove my bike to the bike shop because something bigger had to be going on. Owning the bike for only 13 weeks, maybe I used the wrong tube or didn’t pay attention to some detail. Let’s go over it all again. We did. The owner, Wake was very helpful and we went through the tire with a little vacuum and he did give me some great tips on getting the tire back on the rim. I was a sponge soaking up all the technical details and thinking I would like to be a bike mechanic. It was very satisfying. He lubed up the chain and I was feeling great about it. I concluded that yes, it was me. I had missed a step and this would be the end of the cycle of flats.

I came home and went for a ride to clear out the funky feelings I was having about a variety of issues not related to biking. What a great ride. I had a renewed sense of joy. The chain was lubed and not squeaking like a broken swing, and after 10 miles I felt like my bike was healed.

The next morning… yep, flat as a pancake. Again.

At this juncture, I’m done. I’m want my money back. My bike is clearly defective. I couldn’t deliver the bike back to the shop. I had to be somewhere else, so my husband offered to help me out. He took the bike back and this time the tire and rim were replaced on the back and the front tire was also changed. I was happy that the shop could see what I’d been dealing with over the last several weeks. My husband texted me he was on his way home and the bike was in great shape.

I was home when he pulled the car into the garage. I was thrilled to see my bike and filled with certainty that this was the end of the flat period. I’m looking at the bike on the rack and guess what? Another flat! The bike was on the rack and this time the front tire was flat. The flat disease was spreading! I was shocked and dismayed and so frustrated. My husband pulled right out of the garage anddrove back to the bike shop. Come to find out, they were out of the Shrader valve tubes in the size needed, so they resued one of my old tubes with the intent of replacing it when they got more tubes. The old tube split during the drive home. They did have some new Presta valve tubes, so one of those replaced the one in the front tire. My husband reported that there might be some concerns about two different valves on the same bike, but someone said, “This is Bike Goddess you’re talking about.” I love that and I really like that I have two different valves. How cool am I?

It has been two weeks since my last flat. Flat tires can deflate a person’s confidence about riding a bike. I still go out to the garage just to see with my own eyes that the tires on the bike are fine and fully inflated. It’s reassuring. There could have been something on the rim that was not sitting right with the whole tube and when I think about the slow leaks and the types of flats my bike was getting it does seem like something was happening that was harder to diagnose. I’m grateful that the bike shop techs were asking questions and trying get me to articulate exactly what was happening.

Flats make even the most experienced rider apprehensive about riding. Have you ever had so many episodes of flats? How did you handle it?

Thanks for reading! Get out there and ride!

Bike Goddess

Bike Goddess

Get out there and ride!

Tag Archives: Tires

Air Apparent

Featured

Flatitudes

Featured