GeoTagged, [N37.30875, E91.96194]
About an hour into my ride I hear what sounds like a gunshot coming from my front tire. My inner tube burst through the sidewall of my brand new tire leaving both of them completely useless (3 inch long gashes). I think I may have damaged the tire trying to get it on my rims (puncture resistance tires are really hard to put on).
I'm on my spare but I'm feeling very exposed and uncertain. I've only got one unpatched tube left (the one with the very slow leak) and no extra tires. I've got to find that leak asap.
The next bike shop on route is around 180 miles away. I've got to call them tomorrow and see what they have in stock for tires. If another tire fails I guess I'll limp to the nearest campground and overnight a new one via Amazon.
I guess it's just lucky it happened on a climb. There were some BIG downhills today.
Speaking of today, I think today was the hardest terrain I'll be biking all trip. There were 8 extremely steep 200-400' climbs and one 700' that started extremely steep then went gradual. On top of that there were countless 25-100' mounds.
I ended up doing the full 71 mile trip so as to rest tomorrow and to test myself (if I can do this I can do the rest of the trip). I think about 2 of that 71 is vertical. This was also the first time since day 2 that I had a single digit average speed (9.9).
I'm in Houston, MO.
Soooooo tired.
Only you could title a blog entry "Disaster Strikes" while traveling through countryside recently impacted by a flash flood and have the picture immediately below the headline be a beautiful scenery shot. If this is the worst thing that happens on your trip I would guess we'll all be thankful! Hang in there tough guy, we're all rooting for you.
ReplyDeleteGet some talcom powder at a CVS when you get a chance. Tires and tubes slip on quite easily when covered with the powder. Have a bike shop install them if possible.
ReplyDelete