Puncture!

Posted on 2nd Nov 2025 by essiep

11°C, early heavy shower that turned sunny. Strong SW.

Started at 10am in good sunshine. Encouraged by a decent forecast I got the Racelite out. Only 15′ later, it was obvious that I had the wrong bike. For a while, that rain was heavy, not good on a bike 25c tyres & no mudguards.

Nevermind, it brightened up half an hour later. I went up Bannister Hill but had a problem descending the other side. A small puddle hid a pothole. Seconds later, the rear wheel was flat down to the rim. That’s probably the only puncture I’ve had this year.

Frozen nuts

Posted on 10th Oct 2023 by essiep

Here’s a puncture that should be easy to fix, but …

It’s okay to get punctures every year or so, but here are other problems. The tyre would hold pressure for about ten minutes before dropping 10psi. I called into the supermarket for shopping anyway and shopped before dealing with it. By the time I got out it was obvious a wheel change was necessary.

The problem was getting the locknut off. The locknut key skipped off and refused to release the wheel. Even supporting the spanner on the jack didn’t help. That means the wheel is stuck. A passing bricklayer in a van tried an electric drivers but no luck. It was fast.

Next try, the supermarket had tyre sealant aerosols listed, that would inflate and seal the tyre temporarily (enough to get home). They were out of stock. Finally, I used the pump and blew it up to 30psi to see how far I could get. I got home with 3 stops to reinflate. At least that saved paying for recovery.

When this is fixed, I’ll put the black winter wheels on.

A fixie and bagpipes.

Posted on 2nd Mar 2019 by essiep

8°C, brightening up with increasing SW wind.

1, The birds were lively today. I heard curlews, lapwings and another strange one. The latter’s sound carried a very long way but eventually I got there. A guy stopped his van and had just finished playing his bagpipes. I stopped for a chat; he played in a band in Liverpool and couldn’t practice at home.

2, Look, this is creepy;

On a lamp-post in Formby.

“WAKE UP WHITE PEOPLE

SAVE THE WHITE RACE.

Er what? Save them from what exactly? A quick search using those words returns white supremacists in the USA. What is going on in their poor little minds? I’m not offended by this crass slogan, I’m disgusted by it. Needless to say, I scraped it off.

3, Later, a puncture. The tyre is something that the rubber delaminated from the case. How did I let it get so bad? There followed a nervous ride home, it could so easily puncture again. It didn’t.

4, new pedals:

Swapped from the Arrow winter bike, semi-platform SPDs seem a more natural option on a fixed gear bike.

The black cage is actually plastic and weighs very little. Clipping in feels no different. Shimano do a very wide range of SPD pedals and I may slowly phase in this style as others wear out. It’s only the cross bike that needs the extra mud clearance offered by the minimalist design.

Occasionally, I may ride this machine in ordinary shoes so a wider footprint is necessary. They feel better too and I can see a smoother movement of my knees with less side to side motion. I had no twinges in my knees today. Problem solved!

Punctured night.

Posted on 1st Dec 2016 by essiep

5°C, light NE, no rain but damp roads.
I rode mustang with MapMyRide+! Distance: 26.82km, time: 01:38:33, pace: 3:40min/km, speed: 16.33km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/1891190354

It’s not always obvious what to do when you notice the first signs of a puncture. If it’s dark and there are no light-up places to fix the tyre, what do you do? This night, I decided to inflate with the pump because the deflation was slow to start with. Then ride on as far as I could before it deflated too much. Unfortunately, next time with the little pump, deflation got faster.
Stopping to re-inflate 3 times isn’t so bad, but the time between each re-inflation was getting noticably shorter. The last interval was less than a 1km. I walked the last 4km home in all (in quite a bad mood, and hungry).

Next day, I did the repairs. The thorn that was guilty, was surprisingly long and difficult to remove. These puncture-proof tyres make pulling thorns out very tricky. If you don’t get it all out, the new inner-tube goes flat immediately. Retrospectively, the choice to walk was probably about right.

It started well…

Posted on 5th Mar 2016 by essiep

I rode The Jake CX with MapMyRide+! Distance: 10.39mi, time: 01:46:36, pace: 10:16min/mi, speed: 5.85mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1371496079
Cold and deep mud, only once did I stop to run around the mud patches. The others, I powered though. Not once did I grind to a halt, nor fall off. Result!

Then a puncture.
The pump let me down, it barely offered any pressure so that after vigorous pumping, the tyre had lower pressure than before.
I will take it apart to see whether it is too dirty to keep pressure. Maybe, it’s just crap.
By now, the pressure is so low that I couldn’t ride, that meant a 4 mile walk home.
Good job that I like walking.

Walk the bike.

Posted on 20th Nov 2015 by essiep

6°C, light NW. Rain to start and clear later.
Commute with MapMyRide+! Distance: 14.99mi, time: 01:48:39, pace: 7:15min/mi, speed: 8.28mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1254815419

Sketch in the margin of my planner.

Set out in rain but full of energy. At 9 miles front tyre lost pressure on an awkward stretch of road. Soon, all was lost and I had to walk about half a mile to a brightly lit pub. The new tube only lasted another mile or so. I can’t keep putting tubes in so decided to walk the remaining 3 miles.
At least it was dry by then. It’s so difficult to reliably fix a tyre when there is dirt all over the road. That dirt includes thorns. Also, I need tyres I can trust, so both will have to be replaced with something more resilient.

Green blood.

Posted on 30th May 2015 by essiep

12°C, moderate W wind. Sunny and dry.
I rode Jake cyclocross with MapMyRide+! Distance: 38.4mi, time: 03:00:16, pace: 4:41min/mi, speed: 12.8mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1006508127
It was chilly early start this morning, and of course, the roads were very quiet. Good conditions even after a night of rain that left trails softer than hard-pack.
Puncture caused by a thorn. The tyre deflated quickly at first, but I wanted the Slime inner-tubes to work so I left the tyre on. I blew the tyre up three times in all and could see slime bubbling out of the hole made by the spike.

Eventually the deflation became slower. And the last leg of the ride was along a canal towpath. A surface like that makes sensing a soft tyre more difficult.
The tyre is holding pressure now.
I think.

0.8 miles: POP!

Posted on 9th Apr 2015 by essiep

17°C, milky sun and no wind.
Started out on the Jake with the commuting wheels fitted. They have Schwalbe Durano tyres for the fast but puncture resistance. Less than a mile out a sharp high pop rang out. Instantly the front tyre was flat as I made a right-turn on a busy A road.
Rather than fix it there, I walked back to get the other bike.
Here is the puncture:

Part of the tube is actually missing. Looks to me like the tube was pinched inside the rim and chose a bad moment to burst.

I rode fixed with MapMyRide+! Distance: 36.04mi, time: 02:15:09, pace: 3:45min/mi, speed: 16.00mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/935796653
Plan B, grab the fixed bike, the Paddy Wagon and rode the same route. For only the second time this year I got up Bannister Hill. This time was on the higher 42×16 gear. No serious struggle today.
Those wheels are brilliant. So fast and nimble.
later: it turns out that the climb up Bannister Hill was my personal record 9′.08″.
Bask!

Dense fog.

Posted on 8th Feb 2015 by essiep

4°C, dense fog, no ice.
Rode CX with MapMyRide+! Distance: 38.9mi, time: 03:32:00, pace: 5:27min/mi, speed: 11.0mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/869121807
Horrible day for a road ride. Dense milky fog and cold. On the route to the canal start I crossed a few small groups of roadies.

My conclusion from today is that cx rides are quite viable when otherwise I would have to return home. Canal towpaths, though a place to pick up punctures, are much safer than the road in poor visibility.
In all, I probably clocked up about 5 miles on tarmac. Just as well because the surfaces were so greasy and slippery.

Today’s puncture was a nail, not quite what I expected on a canal but at least it happened near the end.

Ice, rain and a puncture.

Posted on 18th Jan 2015 by essiep

I rode 8-speed with MapMyRide+! Distance: 38.5mi, time: 02:47:50, pace: 4:2min/mi, speed: 13.8mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/846930091
It started well. The ice was insignificant and the sun-bright.
In the last 10 miles, clouds built up and the temperature dropped. I didn’t mind the 6 or so miles in rain until a flat on the rear wheel. The rims were covered in black slimy muck and my hands were soon cold. Cold rubber is stiff making the tyre a bitch to get off. By then, my hands were too cold to undo that little nut on the valve.
I must have got something right though. I could not get the pressure high, but it held while I rode the last miles.

Now for some soup, a good way to warm up.

Micycle

Mike thinks b/hikes

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