The optimism I expressed after Tuesday’s ride about pulling the wire out of my front tire did not last. Today I walked out to the garage to leave on the ride and squeezed the front tire. It was spongy. I thought about airing it up and going on the ride but decided to fix the flat so I wouldn’t get stopped someplace not my choosing. I removed the front wheel and let the rest of the air out. Pulling the tube out I searched for a hole with the tube puffed up with air. My hands could feel any escaping air so I went inside for the water test. It didn’t take long. The tiny hole was about a foot from the valve stem. I marked the spot with an ink pen and went outside to put a patch on it. After roughing up the tube I got a patch out of my kit but the adhesive was dried up. The second patch had the same problem. Good thing I decided to fix this at home. The third patch was good so on t went. Based on past experience I aired the tube up to check my work. The edge of the patch in one spot was not sticking so I added some glue and it looked good. After putting the tube back in the tire and airing it up everything looked good. This all took about half an hour so I did not leave until 2:04.
Yesterday I stayed home because of the rain threat. Well I also was waiting on my new Nexus 5 phone to arrive too. The rain did come but it only lasted about 10 minutes and the streets dried off pretty quick so I could’ve went. After the rain the temperature was supposed to drop but it took several hours for it to happen. Overnight though it went down to 47 degrees and by the time I left on the ride it moved up to 68. The wind though made it feel much cooler. 15 mph from the NNE with 24 mph gusts made me glad that I chose a windbreaker jacket, long sleeve jersey, short sleeve jersey, leg warmers in addition to my shorts. I wore regular bike gloves and this didn’t cause a problem with my fingers. Thankfully the sun was mostly out. The clouds couldn’t make up their mind if they were going off to the south of coming back to the north.
At times riding in the shade and into the wind was wintry feeling. One corner emphasized this. Riding west on FM1960 after coming off the Lake Houston causeway I made a right turn and the wind blasted off the lake and across the flat land. Not only did I need extra effort to overcome the wind but the wind chill hit too. I was glad I had 3 miles of riding since stopping at the Huffman Chevron to warm back up.
Since daylight savings time ended the sun seems to be racing to sundown. The ride today during the last 11 miles seemed to be later than it actually was. I got home at 4:33 and the temperature had dropped to 65. After the sun goes down the forecast says 45 will be the low. Tomorrow could be a chilly ride day.
The route totaled 31.3 miles. I shortened it a couple of miles due to the flat repair. Even with the wind I averaged 15.1 mph. November miles stand at 129.87. Year to date increased to 5676 miles. I got my Garmin Edge 510 back on the correct screen to record the intervals now.
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