My First Flat - A Tale Of Shortlived Woe

As I was getting ready to bike home last night, my coworker's husband noticed my rear tire was completely deflated.

 

M: "Is your rear tire flat?"

BC (me): "I don't think so."

 

Yes, I know, riveting exchange. I guess screen writing isn't my calling.

 

But he was right. The tire was flat as a pancake.

 

M: "Do you have a pump?"

BC: "No"

M: "What? You bike every day without a pump?!?"

 

Yes, I do. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but in my defense, a pump wouldn't have done me any good in that particular situation.

 

Mind you, this is the same tire that had the broken valve recently. But not only that, I bought really expensive tires - Conti 4 season - $75 each in order to prevent flats, as recommended by the guy at REI. Quote: "In all my years here I have NEVER had one of these come by with a flat!"

 

Seriously, when will I ever learn to listen to my own advice and stop listening to REI employees. Stupid REI. But probably more correctly; stupid me. Fool me once and so on. And I think we are far beyond once now of being fooled by REI employees.

 

Long story longer; my coworker drove both me and the bike home and I headed to my small local bike shop where they fixed the bike.

 

Yes, I know I should learn how to either fix a flat or how to change an inner tube. Or both. And I will, but I wasn't about to start tinkering with that last night in the cold and dark. So I threw my bike in the back of my car to have help instead.

 

The local bike shop was awesome. Turned out the almost new tire had a half inch gash in it from glass shards. There was also other shards in the tire. The bike mechanics there scoffed at my Conti tire and sold me one of theirs. Ok, so I might be a sucker with deep pockets, but until proven otherwise, I will believe what they said about my new tires.

 

I got new tires on my bike: Specialized Armadillo Elite.

 

 

So far the local bike shop might not sound very awesome so here's the awesome part.

 

I had forgotten my card and had no means of paying for the already installed tires. I was really embarrassed. But my small local bike shop believes in the honor system, so they let me take the bike back home and call them with my card info. Yeay!

 

Knock on wood. Here's hoping that this will be the last flat in a long while. Knocking some more.

Edit: I also learned that flats tend to happen on the rear tire because that's where my fat ass pushes it down.