The Walk of Shame

If you even claim to think you might try to be pretend to be serious, at least in appearances to others, about cycling, you should always have a spare tube, a way to fill it, and know how to change a flat before you head out on a long ride. I had all of that. I had a spare tube, some CO2 cartridges to fill it, and I’d changed half a dozen flats before so I thought I had it down pretty good. You also should always check your bike and gear to make sure it is all working properly. I had just put in a new tube last night, adjusted the seat, and lubed the chain.

It was (and is) cold this morning…at least for South Carolina. When I stared out it was about 36 degrees. I layered my core with two jerseys, got my long gloves on and headed out for a nice 2 hour ride. It was a little windy and I wished I had worn something to cover my ears. My new seat angle felt great, the bike was going along smoothly and all was right with my little cycling world. Then heading down a little hill I heard a thump, thump, thump so I immediately stopped…only to hear a small explosion. I knew I had a spare tube and some CO2, so I figured I could salvage my ride. But part of me said, “just walk home and fix it there, it’ll be easier.” I didn’t listen to myself. I should really start doing that.

I crossed the street so I wouldn’t have to tinker with my bike in front of the madly barking rabid dog behind a chain link fence. I rolled the wheel expecting to see something sticking out of my tire, but found nothing. I turned the bike upside down, got out my tools and took the tire off. Not only had the tube blown out, leaving a big gash, but somehow the rim of my tire is now damaged and frayed. I shelled out a good bit for those damn GATORSKIN tires. Puzzled, I got out my spare tube and started feeding it into the tire. I then got out one of the CO2 cartridges so that I could inflate the tube just a little. I’ve found it is easier to get the tube into the tire and the tire onto the rim after doing that. 

Now the CO2 cartridges don’t have an on-off button. You have a little nozzle that screws onto the cartridge, punctures it, and lets the CO2 flow into the tube. If you do it right, you can puncture and let some into the tube then unscrew the cartridge a bit to stop the flow until the tire is mounted on the bike. Well, 10 minutes of riding in 36 degree weather (even with my gloves on) impaired my fine motor skills just  enough that I couldn’t unscrew the cartridge fast enough after it had been punctured. The end result was that the spare tube, which got a kink in it from my frantic attempts to get my fingers to work properly, exploded in my hands. There I was—Larry, Curly, and Moe all rolled into one—the one stooge doing bicycle repair.

Coming to grips with my stupidity, I stuffed the original blown out tube (that was at least still in one, continuous piece) back into the tire, mounted the tire back onto the rim, put the wheel back on the bike, and started the walk of shame. If you even claim to think you might try to be pretend to be serious, at least in appearances to others, about cycling you should only have to walk home because of some catastrophic mechanical failure or an encounter with a garbage truck. To be doing it for any other reason means you’ve done something careless or stupid.

Fortunately, my walk was only 2 miles—just long enough to sufficiently berate myself for being stupid and/or careless and to puzzle over the series of events that brought me to this point. What exactly happened is still a mystery to me, but here are my current working hypotheses:

I inflated my tires this morning while my bike was still sitting in my attic at about 45 degrees. I inflated them to 105lbs as usual. Because the tires were so cold when I inflated them, I effectively overinflated them. When I got riding, the tires heated up and the air inside heated up causing the tire pressure to increase and causing my new tube to blow up. Why didn’t it happen to my front tire? I am thinking because the back one takes more weight and heats up faster.

There was a problem with the new tube. I noticed last night that the lip of the tire didn’t seem to fit on the rim quite right, just at the stem, when I put the tire on. It inflated OK so I thought it was fine. That same point on the tire lip was damaged and frayed after my blowout this morning. Maybe I bought the wrong tube and it didn’t fit in the tire properly causing some problem that resulted in the blowout and probable damage to my expensive tire.

Maybe I put the correct tube in, but did something wrong.

All of the Above

My bike shop opens in two hours and I will take the wheel there and see if they can solve the mystery for me. I think I will also buy one of those nice hand pumps that you strap to your bike. I suspect I also will end up buying a new, expensive GATORSKIN tire—you know, the ones that are supposed to keep you from getting so many flats (assuming you can put the tube in right the first time). In the meantime, I am going to go punish myself by doing the core and strength workout I should have done yesterday.