If you haven't yet, you will. It just comes with the territory. Here is some advice for you the next time you fix a flat.
First, if it's raining, seek a sheltered place, like under a bridge or tunnel, or someplace a little drier than, say, the Stanley Park causeway.
Remove the offending wheel and take the tire off its rim.
Unless you're a Boy Scout and come prepared, you may discover you don't have a new inner tube. But that's not a huge problem since you brought your patch kit! Find the hole, patch the tube and carefully inspect the actual tire and remove the cause of the flat.
Don't get lazy and just fix the flat. Always find its cause by running your hand on the inside of the tire. There are innumerable causes for flats: wire from steel-belted radials that have died on the roadside; staples from gosh knows what; burs, thorns, spines and similarly small but tough as heck vegetable matter; rock, shells, and only very rarely a piece of glass. No matter what the cause, unless you brought a pair of latex gloves for this purpose, your hands will turn completely black locating it.
That's what black tights are for. Now, back to our main story.
Place the patched tube back into the tire and, breaking a tire iron in the process, reattach the tire and new tube to the rim. Most people think this is hard, but really it shouldn't be and the guys in bike shops do this with their bare hands. But we Pedal Pushers use irons and our hands. Next, pump up the tire only to find the newly repaired tube doesn't hold air. Less cheerfully than the first time, remove the tire and tube from the rim, pump up the tube and discover that not only did you have one puncture, but two. Aha!
Go through the patching process again. But this time, don't forget to inspect the tire for the cause of the second puncture. Merrily, mount the new tube and tire and pump up. The now hard wheel is mounted carefully back on the chain (since all flats occur on the more difficult to access rear tire), and the skewer adjusted. You right the bike, repack all your gear and mount to begin flying down the road again.
Not two pedal strokes down the road, you realize the tire is flat. Again.
You can infer from this that a) your life is a living heck, b) you will need to put the bike on the bus to get to work, c) it was a mistake not to check the tire for the cause of the second flat, or d) all of the above. If you're in the causeway - start walking.
The bus stop is on Georgia. Oh, and there are bike shops there too where you can buy new super puncture proof tires, which are heavy, but might be worth it.
Sometimes cycling is like that. Stay flexible and be prepared.
Also, BCAA provides service to bike members and will help you fix a flat or drive you to the next shop.
The Pedal Pushers are Dan Campbell, Antje Wahl, Anita Leonhard and Heather Drugge, four North Shore residents who use their bikes for transportation. They can be reached at [email protected].
