From my years of bike commuting and mountain biking, I have found that flat tires usually come in threes. Yesterday, I had my third (and final?) flat tire of the week as my rear tire slowly deflated while riding to the library.
I would suggest to anybody who gets a flat tire on their bike to find out what caused the flat. Otherwise, you may replace the tube without noticing the staple stuck in the tire, waiting to puncture the nice, new fresh tube. Or in my case, the thorns stuck in my tire from riding in the mountains of Mexico 2 years ago. The irony of Mexican thorns grown in +40°C deflating my tires at -40°C was not lost on me. Nor was it lost on me when the same thorns deflated my front tire on my Kaskawulsh glacier trip. Stupid thorns.
Most of my riding is done alone, so I have very few pictures of me on my bike. And there are certain limitations to taking action-shot self portraits. The above shot is one that worked out quite well, considering that I had 10 seconds to get on my bike and look like I was flying down the trail before the timer went off. It was taken on the Balojaqui Trail, the origin of the tire thorns.
This trail is thousands of years old and was already established when the Tarahumara natives arrived a few hundred years ago. The trail is so well built that it looks like it was carved out of the dirt and rock by tiny bulldozers. The upper section is so smooth and flowy that I would giggle to myself while riding it. The lower section was steep, loose and heinous, requiring much more concentration and energy, but still fun regardless.
And I was the very first person to ever ride their bike down this trail. To access it, I had to strap my bike to my backpack, hike up a ridge for an hour until it levelled off a little, then rode another hour and a half while traversing and gradually climbing up the mountain. After 2.5 hours, it was time to turn the bike around and ride one of the funnest 45 minutes downhilll singletrack trails that I have ever been on.
It is strange to think that so much hard work and fun could literally be so deflating a couple of years down the road.
1 comment:
Well as much as a flat tire in -40 C conditions must have sucked at least you had an awesome stoke-filled thorn infested ride in Mexico to blame - as opposed to a stoke-less piece of wire from truck tire.
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