2023 Black cat award (punctures)

[elantra]

First puncture for quite a while on a ride this morning.
When it happened I wasn’t bothered because i have sorted flat tyres out many many times in the past.
It (Rear tyre) went down very quickly with an audible hiss of air after I hit the side of a crater in the road ( many craters in local roads after an extraordinarily wet summer)

I pulled up in a controlled fashion and looked for a logical place to lean the bike.
Nah, nowhere obvious to lean the bike.
Yeah, just put her upside down on the grass.

It degenerated into a bit of a balls up.
For a start the grass has just been mowed by Council so everything was soon covered in bits of grass.
Then I soon became aware that there is a massive difference between riding a bike at 30 km/hr and just standing beside the road in conditions of withering humidity.
Soon there was sweat running down my forehead and stinging my eyes.
Then the tyre (nearly worn out Spec. Roubaix) was damn hard to get off.
And then hard to get back on again !

So it was a slow repair but soon I was a happy camper and back cruising at 30 km/hr !

For about 2 km until all of a sudden it went flat again. Oh dear. !
Must have done the rarely seen pinched tube mishap. A first for me.

Fixing flat tyres beside the road is much less reliable than doing it in the comfort of the house.
Where you can do it while partaking of your favourite beverage. mmm