RCMoeur 

My boots are of a similar size. I may have to rethink that after this incident, though. The rip in the cord and tread measured 3 1/2" - bigger than anything I've had in the past (except for bead failures, which are generally non-bootable anyway). Just happy the Federal Reserve helped me get home.

curbtender

When you haven't ridden in a while...

Roypercy

It was a beautiful Fall day in New York today, so I took my trusty '87 Super Sport out to Rockaway Beach. Right at 30 miles round trip.


Schwinn Super Sport, Rockaway Boardwalk, 10/19/23

1989Pre 

RC, just wondering: How many miles are on the tire? What are your surfaces like? How old is the tire and storage conditions?

1989Pre 

Eighteen miles, wednesday, in early fall. Loved every minute of it. Getting more used to my 22T low sprocket.

RCMoeur 

So many questions...
(looks over to counsel, hears no objections, decides to continue)

I've been riding "seriously" for 43+ years, and for most of that time I've tried to get maximum value out of my parts, earlier out of necessity, now out of efficiency. There's also the fact that available options for high-pressure 26" 559 quality street tires are dwindling as manufacturers exit the market or move to 650B/29"/etc. so good used tires are often the only practical option. I'm not a very heavy rider, but my commute bikes run 35-50 lbs (total) with cargo, bags, tools, etc.

Looking at my files, I obtained the tire used a few years ago with a small to moderate amount of wear. Prior to use, I thoroughly inspected the tire for cuts/damage, suppleness/"crunchiness", bead integrity, or other problems, and saw none. It accumulated about 300 miles on my bike until suffering a sidewall cut in July, which I adhesive-booted with apparent (at the time) success - no bulging or thumping. After the boot, I kept the pressure about 15 psi lower (85 instead of 100) and inspected carefully prior to and after every ride - no distention or problems.

And then the earth-shattering kaboom, with no warning at all - no thumping, ride quality change, or other symptom- just boom. From post-blowout analysis, it seems the cords that were cut in the sidewall gradually pulled loose on Wednesday's ride, which cause a rapid cascade failure of the crossing bias plies and a 3 1/2" rip centered in the (still-thick) tread. In my 40+ years, never a failure of this type before, and hopefully none in the future.

Interestingly, the front tire on that bike is virtually identical, and has over 4,000 miles with zero problems.

Going forward, I'll continue to carefully inspect older tires prior to installation and regularly during use, and if a tire gets a sidewall cut of that size, I'll probably retire it to avoid a recurrence of such a detonation. And carry bigger boots.

My bikes are kept in an insulated building without AC, so it does get warm in the summer but no sunlight damage. I haven't had problems with other tires under these conditions, unless they are so old that it's obvious they are past their prime. This tire didn't fall into that category - at least until Wednesday afternoon.

1989Pre 

Thanks for that generous context. (No further questions, your honor...) You ride 26" (559) slicks? So do I, in summer (Bontrager SR1's). Fifty pounds of cargo sounds like it could be a contributing factor in tire-stress. I was once sitting at my desk, when my knobby 2.1x26" mtb tire suddenly exploded. A 2" gash was left in the middle of the tire (insert "surprised" emoticon, shaking his head). The bike hadn't been ridden in two days. The tire had not been previously-damaged nor over-inflated. It had been on the bike for about a year, so carrying some legal-tender and a rubber "boot" is something I may want to prioritize. I run my SR1's at 90 psi, instead of the maximum of 100, just for comfort's sake. I admire how you were able to discern the dynamics of the damage to the tire. Are you considering a tire with greater puncture-resistance? (I haven't tried Hutchinson Top Slick nor IRC Smoothie, but they are both more robust (heavier) than the Bontragers I am using.

RCMoeur 

Historically, I've had good experiences with Specialized Fat Boys and nearly-the-same Performance/Nashbar City tires. I've used Kenda Kwests as well. I've used other brands as well. None of them has seemed to be more failure-prone than others. Eventually, I suppose I'll have to move to expensive newer tires, but that'll be after I run through my existing hoard, er, reserve.

SurferRosa

Read about the completion of the Eastrail project on the east side of Lake WA, and rode over to check it out. Very quiet with little traffic. Also fun to add some fine gravel to my always paved ride.

rccardr 

No pics, but rode today with my 5 and 8 year old grandsons. 5 year old was on the new geared 20” Cannondale we gave him for his birthday.
He just walked up to it, hit the kickstand, and rode away. His Dad and I looked at each other and said:” Duck, meet water.”

northbend 

On an errand this afternoon to Vashon Island. Turned out to be a pretty decent day
Vashon's Tramp Harbor by Matthew Pendergast, on Flickr

etherhuffer 

Where exactly is that? I am in West Sea but didn't get over that way this summer

SurferRosa

It's a pretty long connector trail. The pic was taken near my red arrow below:



I didn't know if any of it was paved or not. Had to find out the hard way.

cooperryder

Only 10 miles yesterday including a grocery run testing out this Cannondale hybrid I fixed up for my Missus .

I could barely get the saddle high enough to manage to ride it.

Warmer temps returned for a few days as it reached 91 degrees at the end.

This homeowner goes all out for Halloween decorations. He's got his corner lot completely covered in front and side yard with what looks to me expensive ghouls, 12 foot skeletons and other creepy characters.

This is just the side yard. Front yard is covered with lots more scary stuff.

SurferRosa

Bet Spaghetti Legs is happy tonight.

Deal4Fuji

He should be, I was really impressed with Tony Elliott's post game comments and his interactions during the game with his team. I'm not that familiar with where UVA fans were on their 1-5 season coming into the game, but they sure played well last night.

Best moment since:

????

botty kayer

Apologies for the late reply, I've not been in this thread for a few weeks.

I've always thought of Chas Roberts at their later address in Croydon, so didn't think of him, or in fact of Holdsworth who I associated at their other address in Lower Richmond Rd. To be honest my bike knowledge starts in the 80's so before that I'm hazy. I went on wiki and the entrants for Penge were scarce, but both of them are worthy entrants, you should update the wiki page.

And I don't know much about the boundaries between Penge and Anerley, they are basically next to each other on the same hill, personally I've always thought of Anerley are focusing around Anerley Road down one side of the hill, and Penge more focused around the next big road a bit further along that goes down the same hill, the A234, which crosses over Penge Road you mention.

Those 2 cycling names are gone from the area, but I do know that Winston Vaz, who worked for decades for Holdsworth and Chas Roberts is still in the frame building business (his brother Mario does the frame painting), and is a few miles further east in Hither Green and his business is called Varohna Frameworks https://www.varonha.co.uk/

botty kayer

Here in the UK's its been raining non stop for the last 4 or 5 days, with many parts of the country affected by flooding it has discouraged me from venturing out on the bike. But today the sky appears to have run out of rain!....for now anyway, and its back to glorious blue sky and sunshine and about 15c so finally I was out on the bike.

After the above sentence, this first artwork seemed to reflect the get out in the sun mood.....

Some fancy gates by London Wall that have been around a few locations, cast irons gates are not something you'd associate with travelling around but nice to see they've been appreciated and looked after.


And this new artwork in Brick Lane conveys without any words the current sad state of affairs in the Middle East.

The solutions are above my pay grade and beyond the scope of this thread, but as a paid up subscriber to cycling is awesome and so are most cyclists, I can't help feeling if the parents of each boy got them a bike and encouraged them to go cycling together, they'd be on the way to a better future.

As I'm cycling back westwards along Old Street I notice another new mural....

....and a small plaque underneath identifies her as Priss Fotheringham who ran an 'establishment' on the corner here. Well every day is a school day and a subsequent brief read up on the net shows there was quite some goings on here 360 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priss_Fotheringham

And after reading about it earlier in the week my final stop was a visit to reportedly the smallest art gallery in London. Sadly it was closed, well the door was locked anyway. Out front of the British Museum there are a line of old red phone boxes, but one is unlike the others and has been converted into a gallery, and you actually buy artworks. Currently the featured artist is Degard.

More info here: https://londonist.com/london/art-and...visionary-brit

RCMoeur 

Today's ride was just the weekly PMBC breakfast ride I usually lead, but as we approached the great little Mexican restaurant there was a brief opportunity for a "building selfie".



Today's bike is the "Great Pumpkin", befitting the current season.

Anders531

I rode 63 km down the Minnesota River Valley on my Cinelli Model B in celebration of my birthday. The bike and I are about the same age. Much of the ride was on the Riverfront Trail in Mankato which goes from beside the highway to inside the forest to an unfenced path with floodwall on one side and the river on the other. Fall colors were all around on what may have been the last nice weather Sunday of the year.

1989Pre 

Botty, thank you for taking all these photos. Your commentary is excellent, too. Man, I love those red tele-phone boxes. 198

Spaghetti Legs 

Ha, well mixed feelings! I am actually a Duke Man so really happy to see the Tarholes go down but at the same time Blue Devils let the game slip away against Fla St in the 4th qtr. I am technically also a UVA alum (kind of stretch but enough for them to ask me for money) so generally happy to see them do well although most of the fans have unreasonable, pathological hatred of us Dukies. That’s OK though, we’re used to it and I’m happy for ‘em!

I haven’t posted here much recently as the riding I’ve done hasn’t been too exceptional. I slacked off after theOregon Trip and today I decided I needed to get out and test myself before I lost my fitness gain from that trip. Turned out to be a shortish loop of 25 miles but it started out on Jarman Gap road which is one of the gravel access points up to Skyline drive. It’s a 4 mile road which includes an elevation gain of 1500 ft over 2.5 miles. There were murmurs and grumbling in the engine room for the first 1/2 mile or so but things warmed up and I found a nice rhythm. I only stopped once to rest, whereas often requires 2 or 3 stops. I took a break in a 20% section, recalling the last time I stopped there I had to lay down in the road, so that steep Oregon gravel toughened me up I guess. The very beginning of the ride was exciting too as the beginning of the climb is a turn off from a 4-5% downhill paved road and when I tapped the brakes to take some speed off nothing happened, front or back! Turns out when tinkering in this bike a few weeks ago I failed to reset the quick releases and didn’t notice. I bailed on the turn and kept going, unfortunately, this road is about another mile of 3-5% downhill and I was already at about 20 mph. Fortunately another gravel farm driveway angled off and even though it was a little down hill I was able to maneuver into some thick grass and do a Fred Flintstone foot drag.

Tons of traffic up on Skyline with leaf watchers but other than that a really nice day out. Leaves aren’t quite peak here but a couple of pics I thought were going to be nice but the iPhone didn’t capture it.

Looking out across Shenandoah Valley from Skyline Drive. Recently bushwhacked in front of the overlook, I guess in prep for leaf season.

Afton Va looking over Rockfish Valley.

Looking back at the Blue Ridge


Dick Woods Rd. One of my favorite gravel stretches. Blue Ridge is out of picture to the left.

cooperryder

Today, Sunday, I was able to get in what I call the grand tour of Dallas which is a 40 mile ride depending on the route I take.

I rode from north Dallas to downtown Dallas via riding through the Southern Methodist University campus, then parts of the Katy Trail, through downtown, then through funky Deep Ellum just east of downtown, then onto the Santa Fe trail which connects with White Rock Lake trail, then around White Rock Lake and then on back to north Dallas.

Lots of folks were out enjoying the great weather.

I stopped quite a few times to snap pics .


SMU Campus

SMU Campus

SMU Campus , SMU ponies.

SMU Campus Doak Walker statue, a famous early SMU football player.

Old School Book Depository with infamous 6th floor.

Famous Dallas Mavericks basketball player, Dirk Nowitzki statue.

The restored old Pegasus sign.

Pumpkins at Dallas Farmers Market

Deep Ellum

Deep Ellum has tons of wall art.

cooperryder

Showing more pics of today's 40 miler.

View from Dallas City Hall.

More art from Deep Ellum area.

A vine with red berries I spotted along the Santa Fe trail.

Morning glories along the Santa Fe trail. I decided to stop and smell the flowers on this ride.

White Rock Lake spillway. It's been so dry over summer and so far this autumn very little water is spilling over if any.

If you look close downtown Dallas skyline can be seen in the distant background.

At White Rock Lake. Today's ride was my Rivendell Sam Hillborne, a wonderful bike.

At White Rock Lake spillway.

A bee was buzzing around these flowers seeking nectar.


Not a very clear pic as my phone camera zoom is not great but there were quite a few white pelicans at the lake as well a white crane.

merziac

Yesterday, no pics.

Chris King Open House, cool show, adventure themed this year, camper vans, pop up rigs, etc, maybe since MADE just happened.

Plenty of bikes and more so it was good until it started raining, had my gear but was on the new Strawberry as the forecast had no rain till 2 AM, lying bastids

Really a heavy mist so not as bad as it could have been and I took the train most of the way, still pretty wet.