There is a good side to getting a lot of flats, you get really good at fixing them!

Just had a flat tonight, in the rain. Luckily, only a few blocks from home. So we did the walk of shame (pushed it home).

Least it wasn't the "walk of shame deluxe", (walking in your socks so your feet don't hurt and you do not wreck your shoes).

This was a 1-1/4 sheet metal screw, must have hit it just right, would not pull out of the tire, had to unscrew it,

Flats are a pain when you wake up to ride to work and punch the time clock, 3 lates is a write up, three write ups meant termination. Used to be a 25 mile ride, each way, headwind both ways unless it was raining. Time Trial every morning. .Riding home was OK because there was no time clock to punch. One time we woke up to a flat every morning. Turned out to be a spoke that was too long, It took a while for the new tube to get pressed deep enough into the spoke cavity to get punctured.

Use to run 1980's Specialized Armadillo tires. Not one flat in about a year. Which is great because I hate changing flats in the morning rain while the seconds tick of the time clock. Worst rolling resistance of any tire made, kind of like riding on hot chewing gum, but you could ride the rubber off down to the casing.

Now it is the Gatorskins, probably not as bullet proof but man are they fast compared to the Armadillos. maybe Specialized has got the rolling resistance better than the 80's tire, I don't know.

One time on a mountain bike ride I got three flats in about an hour. Between the second and third flat I had to ward of a stray dog by swinging my Silca frame pump at him. As I swung it violently towards his frothy noggin the nylon plug separated from the pump body. When this happens the pump valve and body take off like a rocket to parts unknown, which in this case, was a hillside full of brush and poison oak. When you swing your pump at trouble, always remember to grip the handle And the body. Otherwise the body slides down the greased plunger like a bat out of hell while generating many G forces.

Now comes the third flat and I have no pump. It has not been a good day. In anger and frustration I simple removed the wheel, stripped off the tube and tire, and rode the remaining 5 miles home on the rim. The sound of the bare rim on rough pavement was deafening, You could hear me coming a mile away. The vibrations made it hard to focus, it was like roller skating in a gravel pit. My hands were never the same. This was a downhill road with many turns. I don't know if you have ever tried to navigate a twisty two lane on a bare rim, it is kind of like racing a dirt bike at the speedway, the rear end wants to slide out to about 45 degrees at the slightest turn, you learn to control this by using careful braking and body english. The only good thing was rolling resistance was next to nothing, almost as efficient as a railroad train. I dropped everybody. By the time I got home every spoke on the wheel was flopping around like Angel Hair Spaghetti after an hour long boil. Even some of the spoke nipples were gone. There was a burr on both rim edges that was 1/4" wide. Never liked the Araya 7X anyway, snake bite city.

Shown below is the weirdion nail type perpetrator of tonight's mischance.>