What with Jacque being on call for jury duty, we decided to ride early today just in case she was notified she had to show up for an afternoon court session.
We put the trike up on the rack for transport down to the paved road. We double checked all 3 tires and they seemed just fine. We rode up to the post office and then up to our almost-every-day break-stop, the Shell Station at the intersection of North 14 and Frost Road. We had a nice break for 20 minutes or so and then rode on toward the video rental store to return a video we've had for 3 days now.
We hadn't gotten more than a couple hundred yards when Jacque noticed my left front tire was sagging, so we pulled over. We must have just run over a thorn on the weed-infested bike trail next to the road, since it was now visibly going flat in a hurry. Another local cyclist stopped to help, although he had no tools with him.... and I was needing a wrench large enough to removed the 1-inch nut on the front axle.
I found a nearby rock to use as a jack-stand to hold the wheel up off the ground. I tried using my largest Gerber-tool pliers tool but it did not have sufficient grip or leverage to do the job.
I had the CO2 inflator tool to air up the tire, but it would be a waste of the 2 bucks these cartridges cost - since the tire was losing air so fast. Jacque offered to hike back to the Shell station and see if they had any "Green Slime" to sell us. After she walked off, I realized I could actually remove the flat tube and repair it without removing the wheel. I was surprised to find this tire had a Kevlar liner in it that was supposed to prevent such problems as this. No thorn or sharp object could be found in the tire, but when I blew up the tube with a burst of CO2, the hole was found quickly... it was in the corner of what appeared to be a kink in the tube. It may have been the Kevlar liner, where the ends overlapped, that caused the kink. About the time I got the tube patched, Jacque arrived with a nice bottle of slime that the owner of the nearby motorcycle garage had GIVEN her. Yes, it was partially used, but it was most welcome. With our penchant for flats aplenty with this machine we are losing my distaste for tire slime. However, the tube in question here had a Presta valve stem that could NOT be removed. So I could not get any slime injected into it. Remounted the tube and tire, and it seemed to be holding, so we continued our ride toward Marco Polo Hill and the video place. The rest of the trip was uneventful. But be forwarned: All 3 trike tires will henceforth be filled with slime, by hook or by crook.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 10.00
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
3.2 MPH 6.5 MPH 25.3 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
3 hours 31 mins 1 hour 32 mins 1 hour 33 minutes
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