Woke this morning and the sun was out shining away so thought great a good day for a ride. Now, when you get up over here it isn’t very warm at the moment so I generally don’t go for a ride until about 10. When I started to go out the clouds had rolled in and the day was well .. not looking that great. I thought about it a few times and then decided I would just go and brave the elements … who knows, maybe it wouldn’t rain or be that cold.
It was a wee bit chilly on the bike but not too bad. Around Birchington it started to get a bit windy and a few drops of rain did appear on the sunglasses (always the optimist). There is a section of road where I get on the cycle path next to the road just becuase the cars are going past quickly on the dual carriageway. I do wonder why I do it though as it is littered with debris from the road and the farms that are located along the edge of the road. It had been raining the last few days off and on so some the path was covered in mud too and this is where I struck my problem.
I was riding along, saw the mud and eased up a little bit. As I hit the mud the front wheel slid a little sideways and collected a rock that was under the mud. As soon as I heard the rock hit the rim, I knew what was going to happen. A few hundred metres down the way the front tyre was getting wider on the bottom … yes it is “only flat on the bottom so is is fine” as mother would say.
So pulled up and commenced to repair the tube while across the road a work sat in his truck watching. It was also at this point that the heavens decided it was wet enough on the ground. I looked up and told it to f off … and it did … for a moment,
After a bit I got the tyre back on after repairing the snake bite with the groovy little sticker patches that I have. I like them but didn’t really want to use them if you know what I mean. As I was putting the tyre back on I was swaering at the tyrel evers as I was afraid that they would pinch the tube. Fortunately this didn’t happen so that was a good thing. Must see if I can get my ‘tongue’ tyre levers like the ones I have at home much better than these single levers.
After the repair rode on but rather than go through Ramsgate, I thought I would go the short road home to avoid more of the rain that was heading this way … Hasn’t rained since I got home either ….
Maybe next time I will get up and go ….
Posted by telfie 
