megaman

I used to have about one flat every other year. My mileage varied from 800 to 1200 a year. Then I said enough and put in Tuffies tire liners. After I put those in no flats. Mind you I live in Wisconsin and we don't have many sharp thorns.
This year on my trike, I had Marathon slicks. My first flat came at about 1700 miles. It was during the Sunday ride of the bent rally in Stevens Point. I had a couple of people help me, which in retrospect was probably a mistake, but they meant well. Anyway, I decided just to swap out the tube with a new spare that I carry and started pumping away with my hand pump(it wasn't a very good one, but it worked). One of the other fellows offered to help pump so I said sure. He really pumped away. Then he torn my valve stem off. Okay, so I had to fix the original tube. I carry two patch kits with me just in case. Well, the patches in the first kit wouldn't stick. Damn, I thought, can this get any worse? I hadn't looked at the second patch kit until then. It was then I noticed that they were very thin self sticking patches. About this time I was wondering how soon a sag would be by to just give me a ride back. Well, I tried a patch and it worked! I got the tire pumped up and away I went. About 10 miles later I had another flat! Oh man I thought, am I ever gonna see a sag? I refused an offer of help by another rider and fixed my tube and about the time I was pumping away with my woefully inadequate pump another guy stopped and offered to pump up my tire. He used his Topeak Road Morph, and boy what a great job in did(I now have one of those)! Away I pedaled, the humidity was starting to bother me. About five miles from the finish I finally saw a sag and they asked how I was doing. Terrible I felt. But I told them I was fine. I made to the finish and ate lunch. I came out and saw the two tires that were repaired, flat.
Then I didn't have another flat for about 900 miles. Go figure.