My first walk/taxi of shame.
 

I took the fast bike today to try out a new route I've been meaning to take to a Bart station. I'ts 12+ miles of nothing but trail paths. First thing I realized even just 4 miles in was that trails suck! Since the paths were in between streets and residential areas they tended to be very hilly. I can't even sustain a good pace because I have to really slow down and sometimes even stop to cross the streets to continue on the trails. There were tons of glass in the paths too. There were broken bottles everywhere! It was as if some hobo/s walked all twelve miles and broke a bottle every thirty yards or so. But I continued on since I just wanted to see this mess to the end.

1 mile away from the station I noticed that my front wheel was softer than it should be. I pushed it from the top and it depressed easily. Thats odd, I pumped it up to 120 psi before I left. I rotated the wheel looking for a glass shard and what I found instead was a farging goat head! Frack, I pulled it out and I heard a load hiss! Double frack! Oh well, I have a spare tube. As I reached for my saddle bag I realized I did not bring my frame pump! Triple fragging frack! Why, God, why! Then I remembered. I have tuffy liners. I don't need no stinking pump! Sigh. I had to walk a mile back to a major street crossing. Called the wife but it was only 7 am. She's still asleep! Its mothers day! Double sigh! Called for a taxi cab and they said they will be there in 15 to 20 minutes. Fine, I'll wait at the corner of the street then hung up. Oh, look over there behind me. Its a church. Oh, look at that. Lots and lots of cars turning into where I'm at filled with church goers. Hey look at me! I'm wearing spandex with a bike with a flat tire I can't fix because I'm an idiot!

Goat heads: 1
Tuffy liners: zero

Next time I'm taking the pump with me, ditch the liners, and install thorn resistant tubes. Oh, and ditch the farging trails and take the road instead. Sorry, I just had to vent.

Venting sucks. If it's that bad you need to break something. A Ming vase would be good. Oh... old computer equipment is also very therapudic.

what's a goat head?

some seed pod of an invasive species of plant that very well resembles a caltrop. there's a pretty good .gov site that lists it as well as other plants animals that shouldn't be here, 'specialy when they poke out tires.

It's ok I blew out two tires on a trail the other day and had to call my "support vehicle" to come get me. Gotta love family members living in town.

When something happens to me on the way to work that is beyond my ability to fix, I use 'Plan INSERT LAST NAME HERE' which is calling up my friends at work and seeing who can grab me on the way in.

Don't take it out!

I once did something similar and, unless I'm in my garage at home, I'll never take anything sticking out of my tires again! I was working on a Habitat project in Biloxi and brought my fold up bike and rode around town one evening. I was about a mile from our camp when I noticed a loud clicking noise coming from the back tire. I stopped and pulled out a construction staple (there were lots of construction sites as everything was demolished). That was immediately followed by the "whoosh" noise you mentioned.:eek: Had to walk the mile, through a rough neighborhood, rolling my bike next to me. Oh well. :o

Thats exactly what I thought about as soon as I heard the air escaping. Its funny though how you think about what should/n't be done when its too late. Like how I thought about putting the goat head back in the hole a second after I flicked it away in the bushes.:(

I went several miles w/ a thumbtack in my front tire once. I guess it was apparent that I wasn't losing pressure, so I just kept going. This past week, however, w/ a drywall screw firmly embedded in my rear tire, it was equally apparent that I was losing pressure, so out it had to come, since I wasn't going much farther anyway...

re walk of shame, I am not sure there is such a thing, walking is finishing on your own, just like you started. Maybe some embarassment if you are under-equipped, but I've had a couple freakish events using up all my spares and that is just... freakish... if I have time to still walk back home or to work, no shame though (that I feel). If I need to call my wife or a coworker, that is time for some sheepishness... (and I have done that too). I guess that's it, if I need to call somebody to help me stay on time, then I feel like I've pushed it too far, but if I can walk or throw the bike on a bus and still meet my schedule, then it all fits w/in the parameters available... sorry to get all metaphysical here!

That was plan B too. But since it was mother's day I figured I'd let my wife sleep in and I turned off the ringer. I wasn't going to work but it was a route I planned to get to work in the future. So it was a Sunday, 7am and everyone was asleep. It was an expensive lesson. Its been 10 years since I've been in a cab. OMG, they charged me 32 bucks for a 11-12 mile ride! There goes the money I saved from 2 weeks of riding. That could've been a nice Jersey! Idiocy does not pay.

Stop beating yourself up. For whoever asked, this is a goathead:
We have these all over the west. You obviously can't leave one of those in your tire.

Could have been worse.

About two years ago, I got 3 miles from my house and flatted. It wasn't a big deal as I had my pump. It became a big deal when I realized I had no patches or tube!!! IT was one of those summed mornings where it's 80F and 80% humidity and soon as the sun shows up.

I walked 3 miles on the side of a road, in knee high grass, bordering swampland, in the heat of summer. I got shredded by mosquitos the size of small jets, bitten by a spider or two, and smashed my shins into my pedals (mtb platform) half a dozen times trying to outrun the aforementioned. It was a miserable morning.

I walked into my house covered in sweat, bug bites, and bleeding from my shins. My wife looked at me and asked "what the hell happened to you"? The worst part, I didn't have enough time to ride to work and had to drive.

That was the last time I rode without a pump and spare!!!

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I hear ya man.

Fifteen miles into a 30 mile paved trail out in the boonies, (Van Fleet trail for you central floridians) I stopped for my first break. Noticed a sand spur sticking out of my front tire, so I pulled it out. Wrong!! I mean, what did I expect??...Not for it to leak air??
No pump. No patch. No spare tube. No one else on the trail. No cell phone. No motor vehicles allowed.

I got on the bike and hammered, trying to make it back to the trailhead before it went completely flat. Made it seven miles back (at 18-20 mph) before it got too squirely to ride. Waited 20 minutes. Finally saw a chick on a MTB bike with a pump. She was sceptical to my plight, looking me up and down (I'm a guy. We are the only ones on the trail. She's a girl. - get it??)

Decides I'm legit. ($3000 Tommasini, $200 Diadoras, - dressed to kill) Lets me use her pump, which has two way head for presta. I pump the hell out of it. I hammer again. I hear lady behind me. "if you run out of air I'll be right behind you!" I waved and made it back to trailhead seven miles away. I wait for lady and offer her $10 bill for her assistance. She refuses. It would have been worth $100 to get me out of that fix.

~moral of story??

I would have been "crow bait" if it were'nt for that chick. Wino Ryder now has pump and spare tube, and patch kit. :)

there's no shame in walking it.
Although I feel a little shame if I had to take a cab when the remainder of the ride is walking distance i.e. less than 3 miles (for me anyways).

Today I've had my worst experience yet. I must have ridden over a patch of broken glass.
In a 6 mile ride, I had to stop 3 times to patch the rear tire.
Feel real stupid for not checking after the 1st patch if there were any other shards.

Have to admit, I did very breifly think about calling a cab.

With glass it wouldn't matter. But flicking a goathead into the bushes means that you're going to have to deal with its children in future years. Keep it and put it down the disposall.

Goat heads suck. I use a MUP that is chuck full of them. Especially in the fall. Slime goes a long way with those.

Here's what they look like up close:

http://z.about.com/d/altreligion/1/0...espentacle.jpg




As you can see, they are pure evil.