Superglue

On Sunday I drove Alistair to the Panoche Road Race (Junior State Championship). I rode in the follow car with Andrew Lanier Sr. and got to watch the race. Even though team Specialized carried the day (1-2 in the 15-16, win in the 17-18, and a masters win too), the Junior "team" did not ride like a team. It is quite clear that Specialized wins because they have the best riders, not because of any team strategy. I guess juniors have a lot to learn. It was quite interesting to watch.

Afterwards, I rode my mountain bike, but when I got to Redwood park I flatted. There was a large gash in my tire and I had nothing to fix it with. A friendly guy took me home and I replaced the tire-which was quite worn- with a new one and set out again. Would you believe that I rode to Redwood and flatted on the same spot? Another gash, this time in a new tire. I called Barbara who took me home. So much for training;)

On Monday I rode 22.5 miles on the new tire, now superglued to perfection. Or so I thought? Because as soon as I got to Marlborough Terrace (about 0.7 miles from home) the tire started losing air again. I quickly rode home. Not wanting to throw out a new tire, I took it off and superglued the inside of the gash. So far, it seems to be working. I need to ride it to find out. As for the superglue -I took it with me on the 22.5 mile ride- it made a nice mess inside my saddle baggie. Apparently, my "superglue strategy" needs more work.

Today I swam 180 laps or a little bit over 2 miles. It went pretty well and took me about 1:15. Not a record setting pace, but all free-style and all non-stop. Probably the longest I ever did freestyle.

An eventful ride

You should never leave home without a spare tube, a tire lever and a pump. I have known this for decades. Yet today I did not only that, I also took off on a bike with a rear wheel that had a slow leak. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I knew but for whatever reason I neglected to pay attention to it.

The weather was nice, albeit quite cold. I got dressed up and left around 10:30. After a good 10.5 miles I could tell my rear tire was losing pressure. I stopped and sure enough, it was very low. To my dismay I found that I had only another leaky tube in my saddlebag. Not even a tire lever. So much for that.

For some odd reason there weren't many people on the road. So I sat there a while and finally a woman came by and stopped. All she had was a cartridge. I did not want to waste the cartridge on a leaky tube so I told her I would flag down another person. More waiting. Finally, a guy came by and he too, only had a cartridge. Left with no options, I decided to inflate the tire and see if I could make it down the hill to the bike store (about 3 miles). It worked.

After buying a tube, levers and an inflation cartridge, I replaced the tube and rode most of the rest of my planned ride -I had to cut it short to be back in time for an appointment- without much problem. Approximately 35 miles, on the Specialized SL. It is a nice bike, too bad the tube was leaky.