Pop

I was exploring the local suburbs this afternoon when I noticed that the rear end of the bicycle was sliding from side to side. Yep, a flat tire. I carry a full set of spares but this time I was SOOL because my mini-air pump was hors de combat. I walked about two hours to get to the nearest service station and an air pump. I replaced the tube with the spare from my kit, and dropped some coins into the air compressor. The rated pressure for this tire was 30-60 psi. As the pressure indicator reached 40 psi there was a loud bang and the new tube ruptured. Badly? No, extremely well! See below:

Can't patch that! So I set about seeing if I could find and fix the puncture in the old tube. I put a few pounds of air back into the tube and passed it by my face until I felt a stream of air. It was just a tiny puncture. So I patched it and inflated it...very carefully this time! And biked home.

New tires and tubes will be the order of the day tomorrow. The rear tire was slightly damaged by the explosion, and the bike is going on two years old now. The tires look OK, but they have a lot of miles on them. So I'll be getting two new tires, three new tubes (one as a spare) and a new pump for my tool kit.

The repair took only about twenty minutes, but a pump or a source of compressed air is absolutely essential.