Two Wheel Blogs

I went for a ride and we managed to do almost everything wrong.

First, I got pressed for time so I grabbed a banana on my way out the door instead of a proper lunch. Shortly after that I arrived at Joe’s house to meet up for a ride and discovered that I was under-dressed for the conditions (wet, overcast, mid 30s). I also discovered that I was over-embrocated.

The ride was not very exciting, unless you are excited by a gray sky, lots of cinders and rock salt debris, and wet roads. Occasionally we rode past snow drifts that have not yet melted. Often we stopped for Joe to remove some of the road chaff from his tires. This is the ironic part…he is the one that got the flats (yes technically he got more than one). I was suffering from an empty tank (should have had lunch), a cold core (probably also related to lunch), and what felt like chemical burns on my legs so I rarely stopped while he picked cinders (I resolved to keep moving and try to find comfort).

Toward the end, Joe was falling back when he announced the flat-fiasco should begin. We were a half mile from a C-store so I suggested airing up and limping there so we could repair in warmer and cleaner conditions (there were freshly closed trenches on both sides of the road and mud everywhere). He tried with a CO2 cylinder, but it blew up instead, he tried again, and it put a little in the tire before it blew out the side of the cylinder. We limped half way to the C-store but the tire went flat so we resolved to repair it then and there. I pulled it apart, found the hold, Joe inspected the tire, I stuck in a new tube while he got his frame pump. We were working like a poorly oiled broken machine. I handed the wheel to him and when he went to inflate it, he discovered that his frame pump was broken too. Luckily I had one that worked like a champ.

Later after I got home, I tried to shower. That lasted about 2 seconds. Hot water on this embrocation literally had me screaming louder than when I tried to clean out my last road rash with peroxide (BTW do not EVER use peroxide on road rash).

Finally, I sit down here to tell you guys about my day and hit “save” only to find that my router ate my post as it crashed. I am going back to bed!

I am really looking forward to either more stupid cold winter, or spring time. This gray area in
between is not agreeing with me.