Again?

I headed out on the bike for my normal Monday ride at lunch. It was hot as hell.

As I crossed the big intersection near my house, I was thinking, “Nah, I don’t need a repair kit on the bike. I don’t go far enough that I can’t walk back. Maybe if I go off road I’ll look into one. I got a few hundred yards from the intersection, heading to the path, and a beater with a squealing belt passed by, with PFFT PFFT PFFT sound of a tire issue. I wondered if he knew he was losing a tire.

Turns out, it wasn’t him. It was me. Again! DAMMIT!

Didn’t take long to flatten, so I had to walk back in my fancy Nike riding shoes. What a pain in the ass. Took at least 15 minutes to get back. ‘Twas a bummer as I saw my exercise window vanish. I got back, got out my bike part bins, and grabbed the tire I didn’t install earlier when this happened.

Before taking the wheel off, I looked it over to see if there were anything apparent. There wasn’t, although the tire was worn. It came with the bike seven years ago or so. I peeled the tire and tube off in one step, waddled to the pump and filled the brand new tube, and quickly found the hole. I figured it would be around the valve, like last time. It wasn’t.

But it was around a hole in the tire:

There was some debris in the tire. I’m thinking that crap came in that hole and punctured the tube.

This is a lesson in stupidity.

When it failed a week ago or so, I stopped by the bike shop and got a few tubes. They didn’t have a tire. So when I got home, I ordered a tire and more tubes. I installed a new tube so I could get a ride in that day, and figured I’d change the tire when it came in. But I was too lazy to do that. It worked well enough later in the week.

This is payback for slacking and not making the proper repair when I could.

I got the tire and new tube installed:

I rode around the neighborhood a few times, called it good, showered, and went back to work. Today will be better. Hotter (107?) but better.