Snakebite!

[BiggJawn]

No, not Plaid Adder's new book, those annoying punctures that lucky people only get when they try to jump curbs, but seem to be part and parcel of running 25mm tyres on these rough-assed Chippenseal roads.

About 6 miles out, bucking the wind and winning for once, when I notice the road's gotten a LOT rougher in the rear.
Pull over and yep, flat. Pull the wheel, sit down, check the tube, sure enough, there it is, little cut on the INSIDE circumfrence of the tube, about 6" from the stem. Put the spare tube in and start pumping away on the Top-Peak RoadBlaster.

Nice pump! Put the wheel back in, tuck everything back into the seat bag, wipe hands on grass and away we go.

Turn with the wind and spend the next 3 miles running at 24 MPH...Oh, so nice!

[welshTerrier2]

1. my only century

way back in 1994 i trained to ride a century with my bike club ... and my goal wasn't just survival either ... i was looking for a fast time ... right from the start i was determined to stay with the leaders ... the target time was 6 hours ...

i tucked into a small group of people and every one of them had ridden many, many centuries before ... i figured their experience could only help since i really didn't know what to expect ...

well, about 25 miles into the ride i started hearing a kind of clicking sound with every spin of the wheel ... one of the other riders told me i had a thumbtack stuck in my front wheel ... stopping to change a tire would have meant losing contact with the lead group ... one guy told me he once road all day with a nail in his tire ... my tire did not seem to be losing air so i decided to keep going ... by around the 75 mile mark, i was starting to have some problems ... everytime i went around a corner, the front tire skidded on the tack ... turns were getting kind of scary ... and with each skid, the tire seemed to be losing a little pressure ...

at the 96 mile mark, just when i thought i could hang on to the finish, the tire gave out ... i was so damned tired i couldn't get the tire off the rim ... some gray haired "jerry garcia" look-a-like stopped and changed the tire for me ... the guy was great ... it took him less than a couple of minutes and i finished just a little behind the lead group ...

and thankfully, that was the last flat tire i've had ...

and btw, your 24 MPH is really flying ... to maintain that over 3 miles is great ...

[BiggJawn]

2. All my flats are pinch-flats.

We really have some rough roads up here, and since Governor Bitch-Mitch probably won'r be spending any money on roads, it's probably gonna get better.
Last season I was running this same bike down a hill at 38 MPH and bit the tube in TWO places..Luckily they were slow leaks, and I was going slower when they finally went flat. My other bike I've been riding this season has 35mm wide tyres on it. I'm not sure how much if any slower they are, but I can tell they are SO much more smoother-riding..

24 MPH with a 10 MPH tailwind is probably no big feat, but it sure feels ood just the same. No sound except the whirring of the jockey pulleys and the hum of the tyres on the road. I'm addicted to it!

Shooting for a 6-hour Century your first time out. You must have been in great shape that season! I was shooting for an 8-hour, and was on a 10-hour pace when I finally abandoned with Bonk at 53 miles.

[welshTerrier2]

3. great shape ...

i was riding 200 miles a week, swimming around 5 miles a week and running probably around another 10 ... those were the good old days ... i even rode through the winter up here in Massachusetts ... my commute to work was around 35 miles and, while i didn't do it by bike too often, i did it often enough to help pile up the miles ...

i'm turning 55 in couple of days and decided it's time to start "rebuilding" ... biking is by far the best way for me to get back in shape ...

btw, the roads in New England are no better ... we get freezing and then thawing all winter and the potholes are nasty by the time spring arrives ... they also dump sand all over the roads all winter long that really adds excitement when you're taking a corner ... some patches of sand can be a couple of inches deep ... and of course, there's the endless construction of new housing ... they keep cutting new roads into the woods ... the large vehicles they use make a mess out of nearby roads ... but, who's complaining ... i love cycling ...

fwiw, i've been riding on 28mm tires for years ... i think going smaller on these roads would be asking for trouble ...

[BiggJawn]

4. I'm thinking 28mm tyres are where it's at, too.

I'm a BIG boy (289#) and I hammer the small stuff to death.

200 miles a week...Yeah, you was in shape, all right....:7

[Fovea]

5. twice last year

a riding partner used my master blaster pump to rip a valve stem off a wheel.

In one case it was in the parking lot of an LBS where he had bought a new tire, to replace the tire he had sliced on glass (had a duct tape boot inside holding the tube in. He sliced the valve stem on a sharp bit of chrome plating.

In the other, my neighbor ripped the stem completely off 3 miles away on the missouri river levee. Since he eschews a pannier bag, and my tires are respectively 406 and 559 ISO, he pushed his 700 wheel road bike home.

[BiggJawn]

6. They should stick to pumps with hoses, I think....

I grab the pump up by the head, so that my wrist braces against the wheel to take the force of the pumps strokes, not the valve stem.

I use Presta stems, and those are even LESS forgiving of being jerked around than Schraeders.