Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.BottleRocket
01-25-08, 07:26 PM
......Just open your mouth and say aaaahhhhh......
So I did Paradise loop today after being denied it yesterday by a punctured front tire coming down Alexander Ave. to Sausalito.
I was enjoying the ride and stayed pretty warm (although still soaking) thanks to the new raingear. Rode by Bicycle Odyssey at around 10:15 looking to pick up a spare tube thinking they opened at 10 but they were still closed. Same thing with Mikes Bikes. Screw it I thought, I've got brand new Conti 4 Seasons, I'll be fine......and what are the chances of punctures on consecutive days. It'll never happen. I continued on. I think I saw three cyclists the entire ride and had the whole road to myself. And seriously I might as well have had a water I.V. hooked up to me with the way it was trickling in my mouth. Not one car passed me on Paradise Ave. after Trestle Glen. It was great!
As I was turning left onto Tiburon Blvd. at the 76 station I felt a bump in the back tire and sure enough about 30 yards down the road I felt the back rim on the pavement. I looked at the tire and there's this curved nail sort of object sticking out about a quarter inch. It was dug in so deep I couldn't pull it out with my bare hands. Well, with no spare tube and no cyclists on the road in this weather I figured my only option was to hoof it on cleats to the shopping center on Seminary about a mile or so away in hopes that there was some sort of LBS that I wasn't aware of. The closest thing to it in the shopping center was some running store (Archrival? Arch......something), so I walk in dripping wet and ask them where the closest bike shop is, "Oh......probably Mill Valley Cycleworks or Mikes" they say. Sonofa*****..... "did I mention I have a flat and no spare tube?" I wasn't about to walk the four or five miles to those shops! And all my potential rides in the City have real jobs and aren't going to take off work to pick up my soaked, sorry butt.
So this guy at the counter chatting with the sales staff hears what's going on and offers me a ride to Mill Valley Cycleworks. "Are you sure? I can wait for a ride" I say. "Yeah" he says "We've all been in the same boat".
We popped my bike up on the rack on his car (it's still pouring rain, poor guy) and drive off to the shop to get my tube(s).
If you're reading this by any chance Mark, thanks again for the ride and letting some guy you never met sit in your Audi with leather seats, soaking wet, to get to the bike shop. You saved me a lot of time. And good luck at the KP Half Marathon in Feb.
The rest of the trip was uneventful save for being splashed by trucks all the way across the bridge.
Anyway I didn't mean to go on like this, it was just an extraordinary day. I guess the moral is to always carry a spare tube or two.......... but you all aready know that. And people like Mark restore my faith in humanity.
So I did Paradise loop today after being denied it yesterday by a punctured front tire coming down Alexander Ave. to Sausalito.
I was enjoying the ride and stayed pretty warm (although still soaking) thanks to the new raingear. Rode by Bicycle Odyssey at around 10:15 looking to pick up a spare tube thinking they opened at 10 but they were still closed. Same thing with Mikes Bikes. Screw it I thought, I've got brand new Conti 4 Seasons, I'll be fine......and what are the chances of punctures on consecutive days. It'll never happen. I continued on. I think I saw three cyclists the entire ride and had the whole road to myself. And seriously I might as well have had a water I.V. hooked up to me with the way it was trickling in my mouth. Not one car passed me on Paradise Ave. after Trestle Glen. It was great!
As I was turning left onto Tiburon Blvd. at the 76 station I felt a bump in the back tire and sure enough about 30 yards down the road I felt the back rim on the pavement. I looked at the tire and there's this curved nail sort of object sticking out about a quarter inch. It was dug in so deep I couldn't pull it out with my bare hands. Well, with no spare tube and no cyclists on the road in this weather I figured my only option was to hoof it on cleats to the shopping center on Seminary about a mile or so away in hopes that there was some sort of LBS that I wasn't aware of. The closest thing to it in the shopping center was some running store (Archrival? Arch......something), so I walk in dripping wet and ask them where the closest bike shop is, "Oh......probably Mill Valley Cycleworks or Mikes" they say. Sonofa*****..... "did I mention I have a flat and no spare tube?" I wasn't about to walk the four or five miles to those shops! And all my potential rides in the City have real jobs and aren't going to take off work to pick up my soaked, sorry butt.
So this guy at the counter chatting with the sales staff hears what's going on and offers me a ride to Mill Valley Cycleworks. "Are you sure? I can wait for a ride" I say. "Yeah" he says "We've all been in the same boat".
We popped my bike up on the rack on his car (it's still pouring rain, poor guy) and drive off to the shop to get my tube(s).
If you're reading this by any chance Mark, thanks again for the ride and letting some guy you never met sit in your Audi with leather seats, soaking wet, to get to the bike shop. You saved me a lot of time. And good luck at the KP Half Marathon in Feb.
The rest of the trip was uneventful save for being splashed by trucks all the way across the bridge.
Anyway I didn't mean to go on like this, it was just an extraordinary day. I guess the moral is to always carry a spare tube or two.......... but you all aready know that. And people like Mark restore my faith in humanity.