Mach42

I went out with my cousin today for a ride. We decided to go along the Jordan River parkway, which is a trail that stretches for most of the Salt Lake City area, north to south. It's follows the river and most of the trail is paved with one short dirt and gravel section. It's kept up pretty well, so I thought nothing of it.

We get to the trailhead on the north end of it and decide to turn back, since it was nearly dark. I was rolling along smoothly, when I suddenly feel my handling go off. I glanced at my tires and saw the roadie's worst nightmare. Goathead thorns. I must've dozed off somewhere and rolled over a patch of them.

Great. I'm still 9 miles from home, so I decide to replace the tube. No problem. Aww, hell. WHERE'S MY TUBE? I had it strapped to my seatbag, but it had fallen off somewhere. Thank God that I had my patch kit. I take out the tube and patch the two holes. I checked the inside of the tire for any protrusions and dug out the thorns that were on the outside of the tires but didn't get in.

I then pumped up the tires and got back on. 1 mile later, I saw that the front was going down again. I parked my butt at a small local mosque that was nearby (it was getting dark, so the company was appreciated). I convinced my cousin that he should ride back to my place and get my car and pick me up.

Sitting around was boring, so I got my work ethic again. My boss would sure like me to have a bit more of that in the office. I patched up and got going again.

I was riding towards home and a nice couch when I tried bunnyhopping over those thick steel plates that road construction workers use to cover up big holes. Unfortunately, I suck at MTB skills. Don't let the Rockhopper in my sig fool you. I caught the rear tire square on the 90 degree, 1 inch high steel edge. I thought that I was fine until I almost fishtailed into the curb. I parked my butt at a gas station parking lot and fixed the snakebite, somehow managing to catch the chain in between my rear spokes and cassette when I was putting the wheel back on.

I rode the rest of the 7 miles back home in the dark, with only a blinker and a cateye EL400 front light which is only powerful enough to be a flasher, and with slow leaks in both of my tires. Thankfully, the air lasted the rest of the way and I patched the rest of the small leaks in the front and rear tubes when I got home at 10pm.

My total for the day? 35 miles. 6 patches on the front tire. 2 patches on the rear. A newfound love of my Topeak Road Morph. The tubes were pristine before this ride.

I'm never riding that trail on a road bike again. Give me car filled roads anyday. My cousin was on his mountain bike with slime filled tires, so he never had a problem. I guess that my karma had finally caught up with me from sprinting away from him on hills and giving him the smug "Lance" look too many times.

Let's hear your horror stories. I'm sure that most have had worse.

vantassell

woah, i'll make sure i never go down on the parkway. I guess the brightside is you got home?

Mach42

Yes, I'm glad I got home. It was either going to be by bike or by sitting in my friend's car with my head hanging down , so I'm pretty proud that I was able to get home by my own fortitude.

Those threads here about those guys stuffed with backup gear to the gills inspired me to be self-sufficient. It paid out in spades today.

Some parts of that trail are definitely only for tires with protection, such as slime, kevlar belts, or Mr. Tuffy strips.

Cycleman1958

North of Seattle we have a trail called the Interurban. In South Everett it goes through a bad neighborhood where I have seen helmetless people on bikes smoking. Women are attacked in this section regularly. I swear, the residents go out and smash glass there on purpose.

Recently my old tires picked up a piece of glass there, but it did not register until on a group ride the next day in 95 degree heat. Sweat pooled in my glasses as I bent over to fix the thing. Ultimately the ride leader came by with better equipment to help me out.

Then the place we stopped for lunch served to petitie housewives so the portions were bite sized, and we had a climb to get back to Seattle. It was a long day. Your's however was longer.

PS. I bought new tires. 3000 miles without a flat is a good record, but the rubber was beat.

Second Mouse

Mental note: Add more patches to the patch kit.

Glad you got home okay, Mach42. I ride on Gatorskins and still got a flat yesterday from a goathead. One of God's little giggles, aren't they?

cuda2k

Luckily I haven't had any major nightmare rides so far. Though I did manage to get myself in quite the pickle on the first shake down ride on my Gazelle. I hadn't planned on going too far from home, but managed to end up a good 5mi away when I had a front blowout. Of course, I had no spare tube, and the rupture was far more than any patch kit could handle. I'm in my road shoes with SPD cleats so walking is next to impossible. And to top it off my cellphone was nearly dead, my dad had just had surgery on his hand and both sister and mom were at work, as was nearly anyone else I could think of that could pick my stranded behind up. Finally got a hold of one of my coworkers whos brother lived in the area and was free to catch a ride home with.

And yes, I went and found my spare tube the moment I got home.

slowandsteady

Hmmm, wondering why your cousin never showed up in the car**********

JBD

ah ha! so the dork disc finally has a purpose! take that OCP!

is that why he never showed up with the car?

Paul L.

I had 14 flats on a very rainy double century one time. I won't bore you with the details here but here is a link if you are interested in the ride report:

https://www.lamanchadesign.com/Desert_mtn_Tour.htm

Mach42

I'm a luddite when it comes to cell phones. He left it on vibrate and I didn't know that, nor how to change it. I finally called him just as he was about to reach my last known position. I apologized to him for not calling to tell him I was back on the bike and coming home.

As for the smug looks, my cousin's getting his first road bike in a week or two. I feel like my self esteem won't be quite so high soon.

Dewbert

It seemed innocent enough......
Last summer I took a month off due to some hand surgery. After a couple of 10-20 mile recovery rides, I decided to go on a metric century ride. At the start, I met a guy who asked if we could ride together. I figured I could use the company so off we went. I told him that I was a fairly new cyclist and he decided that he would "provide me instruction". He told me when to slow, when to clip in/out, made suggestions on which gear I should be running in and generally talked my ear off.

Later in the ride I bonked hard and thought he'd move on...no such luck. While we were talking I learned that he lives in my town and he wanted to get together for some regular rides. So far, I've avoided that fate. Friendly guy, but sheesh!

shoerhino

I can't say that I've had worse than that although I did help a fellow roadie fix a flat this weekend. Everytime I help fix a flat, people always think that the road morph pump is the coolest pump.