Biking Travails

After a flat tire last Tuesday, I had another one - same tire - yesterday. The bike was fine on the ride in, but an hour after I got there one of my co-workers told me that my back tire was flat. He'd pumped it back up when he'd noticed it in the storage room as he was parking his, and figured I should know. I went down to check it shortly after he told me, and sure enough the tire was flat again already. Back it went into the shop to get a second replacement tube in less than a week.

Today, riding home, I was about a block from the house when I noticed the same back tire was feeling sluggish. I got off and checked it, and sure enough: flat number three! On the short walk home, I was trying to figure out how I could possibly have that much bad luck in one week!

Tonight I took it to a different bike shop and they gave both the rim and the tire a good going over, but couldn't find anything other than a couple pieces of glass in the punctured tube. I was really hoping they'd find a sharp edge on the wheel or something similar to explain the frequency of the wrecked inner tubes. I tried to get a thicker-than-usual tube put in to improve my odds, but they didn't have any in stock so that plan didn't work out. Until we get a good rain to wash a winter's worth of glass into the gutters, I'm probably not done replacing tubes yet.

While I was there, I also ordered my new bike which I should have by next week.