Brain, Franz, and I met at Monticello yesterday morning for some mountain biking. I didn't realize how out of shape I had gotten until I actually had to ride with other people. It was super weak.
This was my first time riding Monti since ~8 miles of new trail had been added. Some of it was great, but some of it didn't flow together very well. I did, however, appreciate that the trail was very well-marked. I can't count how many times I've gotten lost out there. The best part was the long, winding downhill with berms on the edges.
OK, back to how much I sucked. I really sucked. That's all there is to it. Moving on...
We had ridden for about 90 minutes when my rear tire went flat. None of us had the foresight to bring a spare tube on the trail, so we walked out to the road and sent poor Ted back to the car to get a tube and pump. He got back about 10 minutes later and I proceeded to replace the tube slowly. Because I'm slow at doing things like that. After spending 10 minutes pumping up a high-volume tire with the world's smallest hand pump, I got on the bike and clipped in, at which point my tire promptly went flat again. Son of a bitch!
I told the other two to finish their ride and I would just walk back on the road. As it turns out, walking is really boring. I found a 4-wheeler trail in the ditch and decided to ride, flat tire and all. The trail was was nice and soft, so I was convinced that I wasn't doing any damage to my rim. After a mile or so, the trail ended.
I figured I couldn't have my fat ass riding a flat tire on asphalt without destroying the wheel, but had another idea. Remember the Idea Box from that Best Buy ads several years ago? That's how I felt. Like a fuckin' Idea box. I switched my good tube from the front tire to the rear, thinking I could keep my weight over the rear wheel and ride back to the parking lot.
It kind of worked, but the flat front tire got really really sketchy, even at slow speeds. So I went down into the ditch and shoved a bunch of dead grass into my front tire to protect the rim a bit. Just as I was finishing, Ted showed up with the car.
In hindsight, it probably would have been faster to just walk.
All that unfortunate luck was forgotten when we got to McDonald's. Totally worth the trip.
Brain says I need to go tubeless, so I'll have to look into that. Now, if I could just get my ass in shape...
1 comment:
in a pinch, cut the tube and tie it back together in a knot. i did that once on a trip in CO and it saved me. you get a weird bump where the knot is but i've head of people packing mud in there to help.
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