Monday, March 31, 2008

Blowout!



tire_pit, originally uploaded by Travis Nelson.
This isn't my tire or bicycle, but it conveys the story well.

This morning, I hopped on my bike for the first time in SEVERAL months, and I encountered a few problems. To start, a couple of the spokes were loose. So I tried to tighten them. Then one of the nuts fell into the rim, and I couldn't tighten that spoke. My buddy said it would probably be fine, and so I hopped on my bike and road down to the morgantown rail trail.

When I got off my bike there, 3 more spokes were loose. I tightened them with my fingers and proceeded to ride. (I'm still committed to a vigorous fitness routine, but I may have tendonitis in my right foot, so I need to chill on walking/running a bit for a few days--but riding a bike is fairly easy on the ol' tendon).

So I make it about 8 miles up the rail trail with my buddy Josh Drake, when I hear air leaving my rear tire at a very fast rate. My tire had a nice hole in it, and while josh and I deliberated on what I should do, I held my finger over the hole (kind of like the dutch boy and the dike). Neither of us had a patch, a pump, or a tube, and we definitely didn't have a replacement tire. It's a rail trail, I mean, what could possibly happen? hahahaha.

Because we were really far from ANYTHING, I rode my bike standing up, and leaning forward over the handlebars all the way back down to morgantown, and it is now in the shop.

I just finished walking back from downtown, and I couldn't help but remark that this was worth telling the story. My bike should be completely renovated by Thursday, so it looks like I'm going to have to find another form of cardio/fitness for the next couple of days.

Any suggestions?