Yesterday long bike turned into a bit of a disaster. 35 mins into 4 hour ride, my I haven't puncture in 3 years phase was no more. Replaced inner tube, First canister of CO2 did nothing. I'm not a Chrissy Wellington when it comes to changing tyres/tubes. So i was a bit confused. 2nd canister the same. In between canister 1 and 2 i should have checked the inner tube. because after wasting my 2nd and last canister i discovered the reason no air went in was that the cold from the CO2 had cracked the brittle rubber around the value. I guess not having to use my spares in my saddle bag for 3 years is not such a good thing!
I started the 1 mile walk towards train station, where i was rescued by a group of Cycle tour-ers never been so glad to see them. I think i managed to save face, by whipping my tyre off and rolling in back on, without a single tyre lever. Anyway new inner tube, and pump borrowed i was back on my way. I decided to return to Eastbourne to pick up supplies, good job too as puncture again later. The worse part is my lovely new sticky tyres have little thorn holes in them :-(
Lessons to take from this:
Check and replace inner tubes in saddle bag regularly
Carry pump on long rides just in case!!
On a different thought - Friend Guy Crawford has a new blog - should make for some interesting reading!
Just put my power tap Head unit in the washing machine. 5 minute of panic waiting for it to drain! bloody lucky it's working :-)
Sarah x