Epidemic Punctures

The return of southerly winds has finally, hopefully, broken the drought we've been having around here, but along with the rainfall and wet streets has come an epidemic of flat tires.  It always happens that way.  It's as if all these little sharp pieces of rock just lie in waiting until the streets get wet, and then they stand pointy-side up waiting to embed themselves into your tires.  Monday morning I pulled the commuting bike down from its hook in the basement and when it hit the floor I knew without looking that the rear tire was flat.  I pulled the tube out and patched the hole that the edge of the Mr. Tuffy had made (I've seen a number of flats caused by them) and all looked good.  Then, when I left the office, after waiting out a little rain shower, it was flat again.  I changed out the tube with the one I carry around in my messenger bag and made it home OK.

Tuesday morning I got dressed to ride and when I looked out the window I immediately noticed two things.  It was a little darker than usual, even for 6:00 am, and there was a light rain falling.  I retreated to The Weather Channel.  It looked like a little passing shower, and a few minutes later I headed off for the levee where apparently the threat of precipitation had brought out only a handful of riders.  We headed up the river on the wet bike path as I searched for that sweet spot where I could keep from getting too much wheel spray up my nose while still enjoying a bit of the draft.  Woody, Howard, Scott, Max, Judd and a few others got the pace up into the uncomfortable zone pretty fast, and although I was basically feeling like crap I figured that if I was going to get all wet and gritty I may as well get a good workout out of the ride.  Well, a few miles later I felt my rear tire going squishy and pulled out of the paceline, telling the riders around me to go ahead and commenting that it probably wouldn't be the last flat of the day.  They took pity on me anyway, though, and stopped while I fixed it, so a few minutes later we were back on the road. 

JHS Class of  '71, 40th Reunion

As we approached Kenner we could see a dark cloud up ahead and soon a few raindrops started to fall.  There was discussion about whether and when to turn back.  A few turned back at the little dip, and the rest of us settled on turning around at the Big Dip.  We hadn't gotten very far on the return trip when we came upon the first group stopped fixing another flat, which turned out to be their second. A little while later we passed Taylor who was just finishing fixing his own flat.  I think there was yet another flat before we got back around River Ridge when it started raining again.  By then, Woody was pushing the pace since he was probably going to be late for work. When the speed got up to 31 mph around the Huey P. bridge, I finally backed off, and right after everyone else turned off around the Playground, leaving me on my own, the sky really opened up.  My last few miles on the levee were in a stinging horizontal rain that finally seeped through my shoes and soaked my feet.  That's when you know you're really wet. Naturally, the rain stopped about a mile before I got home, where I peeled off all of the soaked lycra, threw it all into the washer in the basement, and walked upstairs stark naked to get a clean start on another day.