A sort of biking adventure

I've reduced my running significantly after the LA marathon.  Nothing over 6 miles.  My LA marathon partner Anita has gotten into biking and so after a failed previous attempt to go biking, we made solid plans to go yesterday.  We loaded up our bikes, sunscreened and headed out for a path that picked up in Culver City and would drop us out onto the beach path. 

It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day and I was looking forward to getting 10-15 miles of biking in.  A short ride since I hadn't biked in a while.  Unfortunately, we hadn't gone more than 500 feet when I heard a loud POP! - the unmistakable sound of a tire popping.  Though I had thought of bringing a tire repair kid with me that morning, I did not.  I had often gone riding in Madison without one and I had never gotten a flat.  I thought I'd be fine.  Thankfully, between the two of us, we had all the tools and knowledge to fix a flat.  I had a tire pump and Anita had not only a tire repair kit but also a spare tube.  She had never fixed a flat before, and I at least knew how to do it and had removed the tire from my bike before.

So I turned my bike upside down, removed the tire, put in the new tube, pumped it back up and were in the middle of putting things away when POP! - again, the tire was flat.  We were baffled.  We hadn't even put the tire back on the trail yet.  I undid the tire once more, examined the tube and saw that it was a different kind of hole.  The hole looked like the tube had been pinched but I had checked and double checked that it wasn't pinched between the tire and the rim.  I told Anita that I would try to fix it again, and if it popped once more then I think we should call it a day.  We took out the patch kit and I patched up my tube.  I put it back in and in the middle of pumping the tire back up, I noticed that the tube was peeking out of an apparently giant gash in the tire.  The pressure as we pumped it pinched the tube and led to the second popping.  Of course, I forgot to check the actual tire itself.  So we packed it up and hiked a trail nearby and had lunch. 

Giant gash in my tire.

Afterward, I learned of "the dollar bill" trick, where you stick a dollar bill where the gash in the tire is to prevent the tube from pushing out and getting pinched.  It's not ideal, but when you're miles from home, it can temporarily provide a way to limp home.  Now I've got to make sure to carry cash and a tire repair kit with me the next time I ride.

I noticed a couple of things while attempting to repair the tire on the side of the trail.  One is that people were very willing to help us.  Nearly everybody who passed by no matter if they were bikers or runners would ask whether we needed any help.  We politely turned them down each time, but it was nice to know that we could've easily found help had we needed it.

The other thing I noticed was how impressed people were that I knew how to fix a flat on my bike.  I always thought that everybody who rode their bike knew how to fix a tire or rode with somebody who did.  I mean, I was nervous to ride long by myself when I didn't know how to fix a tire.  We got a lot of offers of help but also a lot of people commenting on how impressed they were that we seem to know how to fix the situation because they would've been stuck themselves. 

I only know because I took the WAAM class in Madison.  Even though the problem wasn't something that I could actually fix on the road, it's nice to know that the next time I run into a flat, I know how to keep going.