Publictakeover's Weblog

Blow up

It rained.  I rode the road bike anyway.  I tried to change the tube on the rear wheel of the mountain bike before work.  I had five minutes before I had to leave, and I figured I could take off the old wheel, put on the new one, and inflate the tire in three to four minutes.  I got the wheels changed quickly.  It only took me two or maybe two and one half minutes.  The axles fell right into the slots on the frame, and I hardly had to fuss with the chain at all.

I was cruising.  Started pumping up the tire.  I was using one of those powerful new hand pumps by the door of the bike room.  It took less than a minute to fill er up.  A couple of extra strokes for good measure, and then … POOM!  Popped the tube.  Shit! 

Out of time.  Couldn’t take the mountain bike after all, in spite of the forecast for rain.  Just dragged the whole thing back to the rack, grabbed the road bike, and headed out.

Later today

It just started raining as I climbed the back steps from the basement out to the street and climbed on  to ride across town.  I made it on time with two minutes to spare.