First Flat...First Crash...

We got up early this morning to beat the heat on a short ride. As I wheeled out of the garage, I noticed that my front, right tire was completely flat. I figured that I must have had something major happen to the tube, so I wheeled it back into the garage and started fumbling about for the tools to take the tire off. My wife suggested that maybe, since I had pumped all the tires up the day before, I had not tightened the Presta value all the way. So I took the cap off and, sure enough, the value was not tightened down. So I filled the tube and properly tightened it up and off we went.

Some time and miles later, as we were going through a park (on a narrow pathway), I came to an abrupt halt (there was a man with two large dogs on the path ahead and sprinklers in the park were going and spraying on the sidewalk). I thought to stop before reaching either, but miscalculated and ended up stopped on the sidewalk and getting thoroughly soaked by the sprinklers. And immediately thereafter getting run into by my wife. Thankfully, she stayed on her bike and didn't receive any harm to her or her bike. I on the other hand, got a thump on my head and had one of my tail lights torned off. We got out of the water, picked up the pieces, and continued on our way.

However, just a few yards down the path and I realized that my front, right tire was again going flat. I got off, took my small hand pump, and pumped the tube up as best I could (far less than I could using the pump in our garage -- there is no leverage on those little hand pumps to push against the 50 or 60 pounds of air pressure you need in the tire).

We turned around and headed home. We made it without the tire going flat again (though it was getting flatter). I guess I will be changing the tube (or patching it since I cannot find a 20" tube around here with Presta values -- I have to order one from HostelShoppe). While I have the tire off, I will also be putting the Tuffy tire liners in that I bought some time ago. Guess I should have put those liners in right after I got them...