The Tire Hungers for Metal and Flesh

I wasn't expecting to be able to have a sunny ride in this morning, but the weather obliged and I hit the road around 8:25am. After about 7 miles of solid riding the bike started to handle a little strangely, and as I looked down at my back tire the vision and sound of the flat filled my senses. Now I had a spare tube, some plastic levers, and a CO2 tire inflater but I've never had to replace a tube before. Of all my worries getting a flat was one of my highest and it had happened after just around 100 miles on the new bike.


I spun the back wheel around an before it completed a revolution I saw a piece of metal sticking out of it. A little industrial staple had ruined my ride with ruthless efficiency. Since I take my front tire off all the time I wouldn't have worried about it, but the back tire is scary with all the various moving parts back there. Luckily it is rather easy to disengage and take off, otherwise I'd have been in trouble. With the tire off the bike I set about trying to get the tire off the hub, and after about ten minutes of trying different techniques I finally managed it.


Unfortunately for me, I wasn't paying close attention to the teeth attached to the wheel and they took a bite out of me during the struggle. Compared to taking the tire off getting the new tube in and on was actually pretty easy. I'm glad we stopped to check on the biker replacing his tire the other day because I was able to mimic his technique and get things put together rather quickly. At this point the owner of the home I was in front of came out to make sure I was ok. I let him know that I was and that I was just going through the process of putting everything back together, and that I'd be done soon in theory. It took me another five minutes or so to figure out how to engage the CO2 to fill the tire, and I was pretty shocked at just how fast it filled it. It probably took a second at most to refill the tire, leaving the frozen cartridge stuck to my quickly freezing hand.

I was pretty happy to be back on the road and glad to have the fear of changing a flat abolished. About a half mile later my wife passed me in the car on her way to work. Now she's follows me into work just in case something catastrophic happens and I need a lift in. When she passed me she waved and then just took off. I was shocked that she didn't question why I was less than half of the way to work when normally I'd be near finishing. It taught me that we need a clear hand signal for her to stop when I need help, even though I really didn't need any assistance this time.

I finally pulled into the office a little after 10am, making this the longest commute yet but also an important learning experience. I cruised by the first speed sign today at 25mph, as I was a little tired at that point. At the second sign I figured I should give at least one good sprint attempt and made it up to 31mph which I was pleased about since it was going slightly uphill.

If the weather channel is correct it looks like I won't be riding to work tomorrow, but will have clear skies for the Saturday morning ride. I'm plenty happy to take tomorrow off to rest as the Saturday ride will be 30 miles at and 17-19mph pace and I won't mind having fresh legs for it.

I also stopped by Landrys to by another C02 cartridge and another replacement tube just in case my tire hungers for more metal and flesh again soon.

The big pain of the day was my stomach, I couldn't get it to stop demanding food all day long. Even throwing a Dbl-Cheeseburger at it in the afternoon just made me want a salad, it didn't make a dent.

The Food Log:
Glasses of Water - 9
Breakfast - 32oz of Gatorade, 2 Packets of Oatmeal
Lunch - 1 LG Turkey Sub w/ Mozzarella Lettuce, Tomato, and Mayo
Afternoon Snack - 1 Bag of Pretzels, 1 serving of peanuts, 1 Dbl-Cheeseburger, 2 Chocolate Chip Cookies
Dinner - 1 Lg Salad with Ham, 1 Bowl of Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese soup with Ham
After Dinner Snack - A bowl of cherries.