Today is the APEC public holiday and I drove out to Mona Vale just after 5am to take on a 120km bike ride up to the Central Coast and catch a ferry back to Palm Beach. Of the supposedly big group only 4 of us showed up and it had already been intermittently raining so we were undecided as to whether to do the ferry or just go out and back in case we got drenched and had to huddle freezing and wet on a ferry for half an hour.
The debate became academic when just north of Mount Colah I got a double flat! So we pulled over to the cliff at the side of the highway and changed the tubes (luckily I had taped a 2nd tube to my frame the night before). Tom taught James to change a tube while I did the other one. Off we went but something was wrong immediately - the front tyre was letting out air already. So we pulled in at a servo down the road and I borrowed another tube from Darren and changed it again.
Once agan we checked the tyre and the tube thoroughly and there was nothing poking into it that could cause a flat. Very irritating. So off we went again...
...and AGAIN, a km or so later I felt the air coming out of my tyre. I told the boys to ride on and I would catch up with them at Pie in the Sky, so I just pumped it up as best I could, rode a couple of km, pumped it up again, rode off again... and thankfully by that time I was there.
Now sitting in the briefly sunny outside area of Pie in the Sky while the other boys drank coffee, I needed to use my repair it (which for some reason I had also just brought along with me for the first time on this ride), but the front tube's valve had broken off, so I discarded that one and tried one of the earlier flats. But that seemed to have an issue where the valve met the tube, so I pulled out the third flat tube and praise the lord, found a pinprick puncture and sealed it up, put the tyre back on and pumped it up... and out hissed the air!
This time it was ok, the patch hadn't sealed properly. Tom came to the rescue here and took out his own repair kit and expertly patched my tyre one handed - it was beautiful to watch. Thankfully that was it for flats and both tyres held all the way home.
We'd missed any chance of getting to the ferry by this time and the next one wasn't for two hours so we turned around (this was about 53km in) and headed back to Mona Vale and at least the ride back was fast and fun (if a bit trafficky).
We got rained on a couple of times but that was fine. Of course when we got back to the cars we'd done 106km and I was unsatisfied, so I said goodbye to the boys and jumped back on the bike for another cheeky 14km to get to the full 120km! Needless to say the heavens opened and a monsoonal shower soaked me to the skin the whole way. But that was ok, I was in a fine mood and happy as a clam.
Got back to the car and did a quick few hundred metres running just to get the feel for running off the bike.
Man my right outside hip is sore as hell, I forgot to mention that when we took off on the return leg at the very start I was fiddling with the bike computer sensor on my front wheel and came to a stop and embarrasingly didn't realise and fell right over onto my hip because I hadn't clipped out. So dumb, luckily the boys had already taken off. But man it hurts, that'll leave a nice bruise!
Ok so the plan is (on Tom and Darren's advice):
1) Get new rim tape for my wheels (it's looking pretty shabby)
2) Get some Mr Tuffy tape to put between the tube and the tyre to stop punctures
3) Get a pair of Gatorskin or Rubino tyres which have a kevlar weave and are puncture resistant
Dammit I'm going to learn from this experience. There goes the rain again - it's good to be warm inside. And now to make some pea and mint risotto!
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