The best laid plans of mice and men

Sunday 08 June 2104

As you all know, I love cycling. I take all sensible precautions to prevent accidents and ensure I have all reasonable spare for routine and essential maintenance. Or so I like to think, anyway. Well, today, on the way home from work, I realised that I had a flat tyre. I pumped it up, and it stayed inflated for about 10 minutes, before going down again. I then realised that I had no repair facilities for that bike at all. BOO! :( So I had the bright idea of stopping at a friend’s home on the way, except he wasn't there. :( Tried pumping the tyre up, worked for 5 minutes and deflated again! Walked the rest of the way home (about 45 minutes) Arrived home and pumped the tyre up with my super dooper high pressure floor (bicycle) pump with gauge. Success! And it didn't go down at all. So I took it for a spin to see how well it behaved. Stopped after 19 minutes to check the pressure and it felt fine.

Brilliant!, I thought. It just needed some loving high pressure TLC. Right! 30 Exactly 30 seconds later, the tyre had gone flat again. “What on earth?” I wondered. “What's happening?” I pumped it up with a hand pump this time and it stayed up. I decided to try riding it home and it stayed up all the way! “Why?”, I wondered, yet again. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I found a puncture – I had also forgotten that I had long ago inserted some a sealant in the tube, which did the job it was designed to do – to seal the tube, albeit on a temporary basis.

However, therein my plans and care all started to fall apart. After repairing 5 punctures next to each other, I then saw that both the tube & tyre are worn out. Oh well, time to replace it with a new one. Fetch the new one, only to realise it’s completely the wrong size. Ouch! It is the correct size for Maverick, but has the wrong valve, so I cannot use it at all! Neither do I have a spare tyre at all. Big BOO! How that happened that I have no replacement for those two items, I have absolutely no idea at all. Mark, it looks like you have a new tube for your bike. So much for a nice long, training ride this afternoon.

Being Sunday, all the bike shops are closed! Even more painful, since I start work at 05:30 tomorrow morning. I will need to  walk to work and leave home at 03:30, being a 1 & ½ walk to work. Such is life.

And now for the good news. The RATT ride starts in 14, yes, that’s right, FOURTEEN days time.

YEEHAA!