Bike Commuting Blues

*sigh*. I like to ride my bike to work when the weather is nice. I manage to do this about three times a week. Its fun, saves on fuel, keeps me fit, and overall manages to relax me. Except on days like today.

Today I started off without trouble. I got across the bridge and into Camden. As I was leaving the Rutgers Camden campus area I stopped at a light and heard a loud *bang*. At first I thought that some bzoz had tossed a firecracker at me, but when I tested my tires I found the front one was completely flat.

So I pulled off to the sidewalk and set about changing the inner tube. I've gotten quite good at this, having quite a set of tools for the job. The first time I got a flat with this bike it took me almost an hour to fix it properly, since I did not have any tire levers, just a mini pump. This time it took me all of five minutes to pop the old tube out, put the new one in, replace the tire around the rim.

But when I infalted inspected the tire, I noticed a big bulge of the tube sticking out a rip in the sidewall of the tire. The tire itself was ripped. A sidewall tear at that. No hope. It was a big one too. I deflated the tire, tried bunting it with a dollar bill, and reinflated it again. I could tell it would not hold.

At this point I decided that this was not going to hold. I gave work a call on my cell phone to tell them that I was taking the day off. Bugs me to do that, but even though I can take the train to Haddonfield, it is still a good 2.5 miles from the station to my place of work. So, having established that I would not be in for work, I started back for home.

The front tire did not hold, as I expected. As I was walking the bike through the underpass going under the Ben Franklin bridge there was another nice loud *bang*. Without any more inner tubes on me (and I would be unwilling to risk them) I had to walk the bike home. 2 miles over the brige and 2 miles from there to my apartment.



This walk was annoying, but nowhere near as bad as when I got my front wheel caught in the trolley rails on 11th street and turned it into a taco. At least this time I just had to roll the bike instead of effectively carry the darn thing all the way home. A couple of nice bikers on the bridge asked if I needed help, but there was little to be done once the sidewall is torn.

So, about an hour later I walked in my front door and set about fixing the bike. I had a spare tire at home for such emergencies, and may order a tri-pack from Performance (they're on sale right now) so I can keep a spare at work, and maybe even carry one. The problem with using Kevlar tires is that when they go, they go by ripped sidewall, ordinary flats are much rarer (especailly since I am outright compulsive about keeping my tires inflated). I managed to run a few errands today and may even get some needed housework done.

But still, this is one of the joys of bike commuting. I've lost a day at work. It could have been worse, I could have had this blowout in the badlands of Camden. I've had problems with tires there in the past since the concrete streets are in such poor shape.

For the those interested, here is the crap I carry:

In my waterbottle cages I have, instead of water bottles, two carrying cases. In there I have a spare inner tube, a Co2 inflator, three spare CO2 cartridges (16g), a set of three tire levers, and a collapsing speed lever. In my backpack, I have a standing mini-pump (the direct versions tend to rip out the stems during inflation, a problem that caused me no end of flats in my first year of bike commuting.

If you have interest in some of my tire repair gear, here are links to them:

The cage rocket storage case:

http://www.cagerocket.com/

CO2 inflator

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=16498&subcategory_ID=4362

Tire levers:

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=2291

Speed lever:

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=2058

And the MORPH tire pump (my version is actually discontinued version of this:

http://www.topeak.com/products/pump_013.html

Also, if you know your bike tire size, you can order inner tubes in sets of 10 much, much cheaper than you would at the local bike store.

Enjoy!