Tyred

On Wednesday evening, I added air to the tires on my bike. The front tire was rated for 60-80 psi and the back was rated at 75-100 psi so I loaded them up to about 77 psi. Well within specs.

When I got up on Thursday morning, the rear tire had sprung a leak. I had a spare so I changed it out before leaving for work.

Leaving work on Friday, the rear tube had gone again. There was an 1/8" blowout. I tried patching it but the patch didn't hold. I carried my bike through town to the Golden Triangle Bike and Blade underneath the "T" Station on First Avenue. I didn't have a lot of hope that they would have the 700x38c tube that I needed because on two previous occasions when I had flats, they had nothing.

My premonition was correct as they didn't have what I needed. This would mean the long walk back to my car. I didn't get far up the trail when one of the guys rode up and offered to loan me a bike so that I could ride to REI to get a tube.

Nothing highlights the benefits of a well-tuned bicycle like riding a rental. While there was nothing inherently wrong with the bike, it's geometry was all wrong, and by the time I went out and back to REI I had a headache from the wrongness of it.

$8 for two tubes and an additional hour and a half to my day.