Thursday, July 20, 2006

The Curse of the Rear Tire...

    Riding at Mercer you need extra protection for yer tubes. I have flatted here, more times there than any other park. In order to ride here, you do need heavy duty tubes and a tire liner like this. Yes, it's expensive but if you wanna change yer tires less, than it's worth the money.

    Betty & I rode Mercer tonight. It was a good time, nice weather, cooler and still early, we had plenty of time. She needed the floor pump, for extra air in the rear tire but the tube released more air than what went in. I personally HATE changing the rear tire. There's so much you need to watch for, where and how to get off or on the chain, watching the rotors going safely back into the capliers, aligning the dropouts to the wheel axle and all by doing this with 2 hands! Anyway, I changed the tube for another slime tube and after 10 minutes we were ready.

    So we went out of the parking lot, across the marina, thru the woods, around the back of the tennis courts, thru the mud, on the road, across the wooden bridge, back on the trail, thru some thorns (bad idea), over a log and then she kinda flatted. I mean, her tire was low, you could tell but I figured, pump more air into the tire and it will be alright, i hope. We began again, so it was over the roots, thru the mud, onto the fire road, over a bridge, over a log, over another log and this time she had a real flat. This time, i changed the tube. Pumped that dam tube up until my arm hurt (my pump sucks) and prayed to god it would work this time and IT DID! Back on the bike, over a bridge, over several more logs and back out on the fire road to the boat house. I think at this point our legs were covered in mud, sweet!

    In all it was a great ride despite the tire changing which was fine because it gave me good practice to change that dreaded rear tire and it didn't take so long each time I did it. Thanks, Betty!

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