Oh Wow Wednesday Part 3: Fix a Flat

After I said goodbye to my momentary riding companion, I was on my way to Rittenhouse Square for my first appointment in what seemed like forever. In reality, it was only about a half hour.

As I was pulling up to the building, I noticed my front tire was running a little low, so, after picking up the customer's bag, I pumped it up and moved on to my next appointment a little early. That turned out to be a good thing...

I arrived 15 minutes early, dropped off and picked up from the customer and was about to move on, when I hopped on the bike and noticed that it wouldn't turn. Flat.

Flats happen fairly often, as you might expect with such high amounts of mileage, so it wasn't supposed to be a big deal. Normally, patching a tire should only take 5, maybe 10 minutes max.

For whatever reason, this particular tire was nearly STUCK in the rim. I could see the rubber flaking off as I tried to pull it out. At one time, the tire iron slipped out of my hand and I banged my knuckle quite fiercely on the spokes, causing me to involuntarily spew out a series of 4-letter words.

Eventually, I got it, but it took three tire irons and the help of a passing gentleman who happened to hear me swearing be carrying a tool bag containing some oil to grease the wheel (or tire). Strangely enough, even though he claimed to have done this many times "in his day," I never thought to ask him to do it for me. I guess I was determined? Maybe ignorant? At any rate, I was glad he stopped. That little bit helped a ton.

When I did finally get the bead out of the rim, finding the puncture was rather easy. I patched it up and was soon back on the road, now about 20 minutes behind schedule. I just barely made it to the last one before 11 and headed back to the laundromat with my trailer now full.

All told, by the time I got back to the office, I had already logged about 18 miles that morning, not including rides to and from home...

Part 4 tomorrow.