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No Air in the Back Stops Me in My Tracks – October 15th Bike Ride

Rick Ankrum — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:41:54 +0000

It isn’t often that I do not complete a ride but today was one of those days! The weather was perfect with those clear blue skies again and a calm wind. The temperature 85 degrees at the start and the same when I was stopped. I was riding along the route at a good pace with an average speed above 15.0 mph (actually 15.5 according to RideWithGPS.com calculations). I turned south at around the 17 mile point and headed to Stroker Road. All was good as I turned on FM2100 and rode about 1/2 a mile when I ran over something sharp and instantly my rear tire was flat just like last Saturday. Fortunately I was just across the road from a Shell station so I walked over there to inspect the tire and patch it. Looking at the tire there was a new slit not far from the slit from last Saturday. It looked like I would need to put a boot in the tire to get me home. Removing the tube I easily found the hole and patched it. The boot from the previous slit was cracking so I knew it was not going to last long but I tore it in half and put into the new slit. Pumping up the tire everything was looking good. While I was working on this there two men talking about their Jeep Rubicons and since I am a Jeep owner I noticed their nice looking Jeep 4 door models with lift and mag rims.

With the tire fixed I headed out to get back home. Being hungry I stopped at an Exxon station not too far along and ate. Leaving there on FM2100 north I was again setting a nice pace when I approached the railroad tracks where FM2100 crosses FM1960 and all of a sudden I hear the hiss of air and the rear tire goes flat again. This is not getting to be a fun ride. There was a Chevron station at this point so I walked there to begin fixing this problem. Looking at the rear tire I do not see a problem until I get the tube out and inspect the inside of the tire. Low and behold is the thinnest 1″ nail I have seen. I pull this out of the tire and then look at the tube for a hole. Finding it I patch and put the tube back in the tire and onto the rim. When I pump it up the tire stays inflated fr a couple of minutes and goes flat again. About this time one of the guys in the Jeep Rubicon drives up and mentions seeing me at the Shell station. I agree and he asks if I have what it takes to get going again. I tell him yes and he asks where I am going. I respond Kingwood which is about 11 miles away. So he leaves and I work on the tube again by removing my just applied patch thinking it was not covering the hole and put on another one. Checking the tube before putting it into the tire it still leaks so I look around the patch and find another hole where the nail went through. It is too close to patch so I get my spare tube out of the seat bag and since it has never been used I put it in and the tire on the rim and pump it up.

The tire goes flat within a few seconds so I am thinking there might be another nail but there isn’t. Looking at this new tube the rubber where the valve stem is attached has a crack and the air goes out quickly. This cannot be patched because of the stem. With all of my options gone I reach for the ultimate reserve, my cell phone and call my wife for the rescue. She arrives in about 30 minutes and back home we go. during all of this several people offered a lift but since I thought I had it under control I declined.

Yesterday I had checked my spare parts and thought I just had one tube left with the spare Hutchinson Fusion 2 tire but I found that I had two tubes so I put one in the seat bag and the new tire and tube on the rim. I am back in business so tomorrow’s ride should go as planned.

October miles are now up to 380.87 and year to date I have ridden 4622.21 miles. This week’s miles are 170.74. Maybe I will get to 200 on tomorrow’s ride.

10-15-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

10-15-2011 Home Weather End

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This evening’s ride was literally cut short by a sharp object – June 20th Bike Ride

Rick Ankrum — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:28:58 +0000

This evening’s ride was literally cut short by a sharp object while I was riding over Lake Houston on the FM1960 McKay Causeway. Whatever I hit did the damage quickly. Due to the traffic and wind noise it is almost impossible to patch a tube on the causeway. I inspected the tire but did not find the damage until I looked at the sidewall. The slit was about 3/8″ long and the cords were cut so patching the tube would not have fixed the problem for very long. So I only managed to ride 11.8 miles and walked about 1.5 miles back to the Chevron service station to wait on my wife to come get me. While I was walking back another biker came over to see if he could help. I told him what the situation was and we talked about the debris that was accumulating on the causeway bridge due to no rain. While I was walking I saw a bunch of stuff that could kill a bike tire and wondered how I made it as far as I did.

When I got home I decided to replace the Continental tires with new Hutchinson Fusion 2 Ultra 700×23 ones. I had been waiting to put these on when I got to 3,000 miles so I made the change 21 miles earlier than planned. These new tires have a gray sidewall so they match the Motobecane Le Champion paint scheme better than the black wall Continentals. According to the Hutchinson package the tires have both performance and resistance to puncture. The test will be on the Lake Houston McKay Causeway.

Tomorrow marks the turning point for the length of daylight as the first day of Summer arrives. Hopefully some rain arrives with this. Wildfires are starting to crop up in East Texas. There has been a 15,000 acre one in the Davy Crockett National Forest northwest of Corrigan and near Carmona. My wife’s family has many people buried at the Carmona Cemetery so I hope the fire does not spread.

With today’s shortened ride I may not ride again until Thursday. Tuesday is a rest day although today could qualify as one. Wednesday it is supposed to rain and I have a meeting. So June miles are now at 463.40 and year to date miles are 2641.11. I averaged 14.9 mph but only managed a high speed of 19.9 due to going into the wind. I usually raise my average speed when I have the tailwind.

6-20-2011 Bike Ride Data and Route Map

6-20-2011 IAH Weather Start

Pedal Pushers on Fixing A Flat

Rick Ankrum — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:37:06 +0000

Roy and Christine write a long post on fixing flats.

Excerpt:

“Back when I was a kid, bicycles had big tires and tubes. Flats from goat heads were so frequent that to save money, we would just use a tire patch on the tube. Take the wheel off with a pair of pliers, use a screw driver to pry the tire off the wheel, and pull the tube out. You would pump up the tube and dip it in a pail of water, rotating it until you would see little air bubbles escaping from the tube. You have found the hole. Mark the hole by poking a match stick in the hole. After drying off the tube, you would scrape the tube with the top of the tire patch can (looked like a carrot grater) to roughen the surface, apply the glue, strip off the protecting strip from the patch, and hold the patch on tightly until the glue dried. If you were smart, you would test the tube again in the pail of water to see if it still leaked.”

Link to the complete post at Pedal Pushers.

A Fine Wire Stops A Wheel

Rick Ankrum — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:13:21 +0000

Last Thursday I was on my usual route across the McKay Causeway over Lake Houston. This area is where I have most of my flats. Lately most flats have been the result of a fine silver wire sticking through the tire and into the the tube. The difficult part about this is finding the culprit. If you ride very far after the puncture the wire bends off or wears down and you cannot spot the problem. I have patched a tube thinking I had found the problem only to re-puncture the tire with the wire still stuck in the tire casing.

Now the question, where does this wire come from? My theory; the steel wire in radial tires. I see tire chunks along the road from radial tires. But how do the little pieces of wire come to be?

Do you have a theory or guess?

Hutchinson Fusion Comp Tire

Rick Ankrum — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:36:51 +0000

Tonight on my evening ride I had a flat. The tire was mounted on a Shimano rim. Before I left on the ride I almost did two things: change to my Mavic rims with Forte tires and pickup the Pedro tire tool. Not doing this was a mistake. Where I live road trash is a real threat, particularly on bridges where the flat took place.

This is an expensive tire but I have noticed that after the new wears off the likelihood of a flat increases dramatically. The tread area is prone to slicing from road objects. While I was fixing the flat I notice a couple of small slices in the tread. Add in the extreme difficulty removing the tire from this Shimano rim and my frustration level soars. I thought there was a problem with the Shimano rims because the number of flats is three times what I experience with the lighter Mavic rims. I changed the rim strip from the thin plastic type to a cotton one. I was thinking the tubes were being pressed down into the spoke cavity and then puncturing. Obviously in this instance the problem was outside of the tire.

Fixing a flat where traffic is whizzing by with all of the noise is difficult. You can hear the air escaping from the tube to locate where you need to put the patch.

When I got home the Pedro tire tool was added to the seat bag. Next time I think I will switch to the Mavic rims.

What has been your experience with these tires?