Flat!

I've been waiting for this day with nervous anticipation...the day when I'm riding along and all of a sudden my tire pops and I go flat. I always imagined that this horrific episode would happen to me when I was out in the middle of nowhere, alone and on a very cold, windy (maybe even rainy) day. Well, when it did finally happen, what actually transpired was quite a different scenario.

Rewind to last week:
It all started when I was loaned a tire to use while riding on my trainer. This will be great, I thought. I'll unhook my wheel and throw the new one on and I'll be good to go... Imagine my surprise when I walk into my office and see a circular piece of rubber hanging on my office chair. Damn, where's the wheel? Apparently "you can borrow a tire" literally meant I was just getting a tire and I would be forced to practice swapping one out.

So later the following evening I decided to give it a shot. I was able to take my back tire off without any problems...smallest gear...check...unhook the brakes...check...unscrew the axle and take the wheel off the fork...chickety check. I released the air from the tube and took off my tire and got ready to put the new one on. Piece of cake...not really...30 minutes and 2 sore thumbs later, I managed to squeeze the tire around the wheel frame. I wiped the sweat off my brow and refilled the tube with air. Well, I thought to myself, at least I got some practice and now I know I can change out a tube and put the wheel back on.

The next evening was my indoor training class. I was pretty excited to give my handiwork its true test so I hooked up the back tire to the trainer and hopped on my bike. I began to pedal and all of a sudden I heard a loud !POP! whhssssshhhh ...Uh oh... "Hey, you just got a flat" my classmate says to me. My face dropped. He hopped off his bike and came over to inspect the damage. He suggested that it may just be a slow leak and refilled the tube with some air. I put the bike back on the trainer and thankfully was able to finish out the session without further interruption. In the back of my mind, however, I kept thinking that I'd have to do something about it before my next training session - which happened to be at 6am the next morning.

That brings us to today:
After a night of restful sleep, I awoke at 5:30am thinking to myself that there was no way I could change out my flat and make it in time for training. I half hoped that by some miracle, the tire truly hadn't flatted out and I'd be spared the embarrassment of asking someone in class to assist me. Unfortunately, my hopes were crushed when I squeezed the tire and felt the hard rim between my thumb & forefinger. What do I do now?!? And then, an idea hit me. Last night I was able to fill the tube with air and ride the full 90 minutes. Today's class is only 60 minutes. Surely the tube would last that long and I could just change it out when I got to work...brilliant!

When I arrived at Landry's, I filled the tube up with air and carried on as if I had a fully operational piece of riding equipment. I set up my bike and began the warm up. So far so good. I settled in as the workout began, thinking I was in the clear when all of a sudden I heard it... "tha thump...tha thump...tha thump..."

Craaaaaappp! I hopped off my bike and informed the instructor that somehow I'd just gotten a flat. "How in the world did that happen on your trainer?" he asked me. I innocently replied that I had no idea. During this time, another rider (who had one arm in a cast) hopped off his bike to find out what had happened. He kindly brought over a new wheel and asked me if I could swap them out. For whatever reason, probably out of sheer embarrassment, I replied no. He looked at me blankly. With his one good arm, he changed out the wheel for me and told me that he'd replace the tube once class was finished. Oh man. I'd just made this guy fix my bike with one hand. Mortifying.

Class finished without any further mishaps and my one armed classmate took my wheel to the back. He came out 5 minutes later, wheel hanging over his casted arm, pump in the other. He set them down in front of me and says "you'll have to pump". I looked at him quizzically and he replied by holding up his broken arm. "Oh...right," I say, my cheeks flushing a cherry red. I pumped the tire to 80psi because that was all I could do (even with my full weight on the handle, I wasn't able to get the bar down far enough to get it to 100). Then one-armed classmate threw the wheel back on my bike for me and told me I was all set to go. So I suppose in a way I lucked out that it happened while I was in a bike shop and there were plenty of people there who could fix it for me. ;)