Bike MS: City To Shore Ride - Wheel Weekend Post #4

Maybe I should have taken spending the whole morning/early afternoon Saturday getting new tires on our cars as a premonition of a theme for the rest of the weekend…

Saturday –

When I finally got home Saturday afternoon from dealing with the cars I thought I would finally get to give our bikes a quick wash since they were all sandy and grimy from Labor Day’s ride in a partial downpour (see last post). As I was getting our bikes all nice and shiny, I thought I would give the wheels and tires a quick re-rinse. On Lisa’s back tire I noticed a portion starting to balloon out on the side wall. The tire had ripped along the side wall closest to the rim. Good thing I saw that since we were planning on doing a training ride from Glenside to Doylestown on Sunday. So I went to my bike shop, picked up a new tire and got her bike ready to roll for the following day. No biggie – it just followed the theme of new tires for Saturday.

Sunday –

A beautiful morning and I decided to have my morning coffee and get our bikes out ready for the day’s ride to Doylestown. I checked my bike’s tire pressure, put in a couple pumps and moved onto Lisa bike. Her back tire pressure was good, which I expected since I did my “awesome” tire replacement job the day before but the front tire needed a couple of pumps to get it up to pressure. This was no big deal until I removed the pump head from the valve… The valve tip broke off which screws down to keep the tube from deflating and guess what?... The tire goes flat. Again no biggie since I rationalized this tube has seen many miles of riding with no issues. I thanked the old tube for its service and replaced it with a new one. Done.

So we got started on our ride and got about 5 miles under our belt and guess what?... My front tire gets a flat!  I guess I hit that small hole in the road a little harder than I thought about a half mile ago. Tube #2 for the day. We also had to stop a couple of times to adjust a brake pad rubbing on the rim. After that, the rest of the ride went smoothly.

We made it to Doylestown watched the Doylestown Criterium bike race, wandered around the Arts Fest for a little bit and then got back on our bikes for the ride home.

After Thoughts –

• Make sure to always give your bike a quick look over before going on a ride. It’s better to handle any issues before you get on the road instead already being on the road and getting stuck. A good idea before the City To Shore ride is to go to a sponsoring bike shop for a free bike inspection. They will do a quick overall evaluation of your bike and point out anything that should be adjusted/fixed. Here is a quick link for more information… http://bikepae.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=BIKE_PAE_CTS_coupons#inspections
• Even though there are many supporting vehicles that will be driving along the route. I would make sure that you have a couple of spare tubes and a pump with you in case someone doesn’t get to you right away.

cheers - Chas