Franz and I decided to hit up North Loop on Thanksgiving morning in order to burn off some energy before sitting in a house full of kids for the rest of the day.
Since my tubeless tires had been sitting in the garage holding air for almost 2 weeks, I felt quite confident in them. That was my first mistake. Not bringing a tube or pump was my second mistake. Sometimes I don't know why I bother...
Who didn't see this coming: roughly 8 minutes into the ride, I went over a log and felt my rim hit it. Yep, my rear tire was flat. Upon closer inspection, there was sealant all over the sidewalls where it had leaked out from the bead. My guess is that I trashed the bead when I rode it on the rim when we were at Monticello.
Like I said, I had no tube, so we quickly loaded up the bikes and zipped back to my house. After a lightening-fast 10 minute tire change, we were back in business.
The rest of the ride was awesome. I haven't been to North Loop since they added some new trails and bridges. Everything was super-sweet, especially the expert section. I even rode the teeter-totter without incident! I only went over the bars once!
The ride would have been a lot more peaceful if I hadn't brought Bandit. Most of you probably don't have much experience with terriers, but they yip-yip-yip when they're chasing something. In this case, squirrels. That whole area is chock-full of squirrels. Bandit love squirrels. Like, I could make a movie about him and call it "The Passion of the Terrier" and it would just be images of squirrels. Fucking loves 'em.
Anyway, every 2 minutes or so he would spot another squirrel and yip-yip-yip after it. Then he'd realize that he'd lost contact with his people, and yip-yip-yip back to us. Kind of annoying.
Fortunately, my tubeless front setup held up for the entire ride, though I didn't notice much difference in the ride quality over having a tube.
The rest of the day was consumed by eating and napping. Two of my favorite things in the world.
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