2021 mileage: 3112.0
Today was yet another adventure-filled one in my riding life.
I started at 5:45 (sunrise was at 5:58), hoping to get in a good ride to Matthei (31+ miles) before it heated up too much. However, when I rolled my trike out of the garage, I was dismayed to hear the left front tire (the wheel the dealer just replaced for me) flapping -- flat. This may well have been just a case of age, as it had been on there for quite a while.
Anyway, I came in and worked for a while to allow the light to increase a bit, and then went back out about 7:00 and changed the tube. I was wary, as I am still a mechanical neophyte even at this rather basic task for cyclists ... but it seemed to go OK, so I set off around 7:30, and breezed through the first 5 miles at quite a good rate of speed.
Then, though, when I got to Marsh Park, I saw that that same tire had gone flat again. I texted my good friend Dan Cogan, who has helped me with numerous mechanical issues (it's tempting to say "countless")—frequently, but not exclusively, flats. He lives not far from the park, and was soon there to help. As I told him via a note I typed on my phone, having already changed it once this morning, I was concerned that I was screwing something up, and I only had one spare tube with me.
My wife Michelle, who was raised Catholic, refers to Dan as Saint Dan, for his many kind and helpful efforts on my behalf. (Dan and I get a chuckle out of this, though, as he is Jewish.) He dug right in, and soon had it changed. With his eagle eyes (in contrast to mine—Michelle calls me Blindo, and I agree that it fits), Dan soon found the hole in my old tube, but was unable to figure out what had caused it. Given this, and my single spare tube, as well as the way the day was heating up, I decided to settle for simply getting home successfully, without going any farther ... this gave me a ride of 10.2 miles, in 1:05.
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