Between midnight and 7 AM my home weather station recorded 2.74″ of rain. I wasn’t in a rush to start a bike ride until the streets dried off some. I watched the Vuelta España Feminina race and a YouTube channel while I waited. When the streets looked dry I squeezed the front tire on my Cervelo Caledonia and it was softer than the rear tire. This has been going on for a number of weeks and I decided to find the cause. It didn’t take long moving the tube through water in the sink. A stream of bubbles came from the edge of a patch. I tried to peal it off but the glue bonded with the rubber. Not wanting to put a patch on a patch I replaced the rubber tube with a TPU tube. Apparently when I bought the TPU tubes I didn’t notice the stem length and it was 85mm. Fortunately the Cervelo has 50mm carbon rims so the extra long stem does stick out too much, I hope.
That problem solved the ride began at 12:15 PM heading north on my Kingwood – FM1485 – Kingwood route. With all of the rain I wondered if riding under US59 at Caney Creek might be an issue. When I got there the road showed signs of water but it had drained off. The ditches along the frontage roads were full as the rain ran to the lower places. The strong wind from the last three days was gone making pedaling much easier. The ride ended at 2:53 PM after riding 33.03 miles, padding my April mileage to 852.95. Hopefully I can add more tomorrow. I stopped on Rock Creek Drive in Oakhurst and took these photos.
Link to the AXS.SRAM.com ride report.
