Reassembly and Homebound

After getting in to the Greyhound station in Rochester NY around 8:00pm I had the fun job of putting my bike back together. Fortunately there were only 4 other people in the small station, so I didn't have people wandering around me all the time. The greyhound employees were also behind a wall from me, so they didn't have the opportunity to yell at me.

Overall it took about an hour or so to put the bike back together, making sure everything was working as I went along. The other people in the station gave me some strange looks, but went back to normal disinterest after a bit.

Since the station was in the middle of the city I had to ride out for about 10 miles to get to a good spot to camp. Along the way I ended up having to re-inflate my tires 3 times. Apparently the slime that had been holding my tires together doesn't like freezing temperatures. It probably doesn't distribute properly in the tire to seal any leaks. While its not fun to deal with flats at any time, it especially sucks when its dark out and freezing cold.

After setting up my tent for the night I changed out one of my tubes for my last spare, and called it a night. The next morning I did the last ten miles to my parents house, and the spare seemed to hold. Now its time to do some long needed maintenance on my bike, and try to enjoy the holidays.

Slime, it's a wonderful thing

This morning I spent a bit of time fixing a slow leak in my front tire from yesterday. It was actually a very involved process. I had Slime in my rear tire, but I had also bought a puncture resistant tire, which was a replacement for my rear tire. When I started both tires were the same size, but after Capitol Reef my rear tire is a bit wider.

So the process involved removing the front tire that was flat and removing the rear tire, which had slime in it and no flats. I moved the slimed tire to the front because it was a mediums size that could fit either tire. Then I put the larger puncture resistant tube in the rear, because it wouldn't fit the front. After both tubes were in place I was ready to go.

Then, in the evening after setting up camp I saw something sticking out of my front tire. It was the back of a thorn, which I yanked out, to a rushing of air and a bit of green slime. I panicked for a bit, but then realized I had to spin the tire to redistribute the slime, since the hole was on the top half of the tube. A few spins later and no more air noises, and I don't think I'll even need to repump the tire since I fixed it quickly enough.

Blown tubes

By this point I have almost gotten used to having to change out tubes at least once a day, if not more. Usually both tires have been flat when I wake up. What I have been doing lately is just pumping them back up and hoping for slow leaks. Sometimes this works fine and I'll only have to repump once. Sometimes they go flat again within a mile or so. This morning I decided to start fresh, with a new tube that I had bought as a replacement back in Hurricane, UT. I had bought it at walmart, where it was the only 700 size tube they had. However it was only supposed to fit a width from 25 to 32, so I had to use it on my front tire. The tire I had bought as my rear replacement is a 35.

After replacing my front tube with the new tube I pumped it up to the recommended pressure, 50-60 psi. When that was done I checked it by hand to feel if it was good to go, and then set it aside on the ground. As soon as I put it on the ground I heard a pop and hiss and the tire deflated. Worse than that, after taking it apart again I saw a good two inch gash where the tube had split down the middle. This had nothing to do with any punctures, it was just a cheap tube I guess. So now I am back to my old tubes and more patches.

Welcome to California

Today I got to the California border on I-15. I was welcomed by a state trooper, an 1800 ft climb to a town with 30 people in it, 2 punctures and 1 pinch flat. Welcome to California.

The state trooper was more curious than anything else. He also knew that I was allowed on the interstate in that area. I have heard from other cyclists that police can be less than knowledgable regarding bicycle law in their areas.

The two punctures were pretty annoying because I had changed tubes this morning due to slow leaks in both. Yesterday I had just decided to keep stopping every 10 miles or so to repump them. One of the punctures today was from a metal wire, probably from a discarded tire. All of my other punctures were from thorns, so this is a first.

The pinch flat was particularly bad because I saw the rock that caused it. I had also just stopped to check both tires and reinflate a slow leak in the front. Fortunately with the pinch flats there isn't anything stuck in the tire, and the hole in the tube is easy to find, unlike a lot of the slow leaks that have been plaguing me.

Another day, another flat

Today was mostly downhill, so I spent a good part of the afternoon in a town park charging electronics and sorting through a bunch of pictures to upload. That way I can make good use of the time without overshooting my planned destination for the night.

Once I got started again I got to another little town where I saw a in biking gear with a loaded bike around the side of the building. I stopped over to say hi, but she didn't speak much English so the conversation was pretty short. I mostly got that she had come from the Grand Canyon and was headed to Zion the next day, and then east along the way I came.

After leaving her I started uphill towards Zion, when I immediately got a flat front tire. Again this one was due to the same sharp spiky plant as the other three flats. I was in the process of changing it when a couple that was touring headed the other way stopped to see if I needed help. They were also European and were also planning on taking the same route that I just took. It's most interesting because it is not one of the official Adventure Cycling routes, just one that I put together to hit a bunch of National Parks.

After getting the tire changed I started on my way again, when it started to rain. I'm just glad I got the tire changed quickly to avoid the rain.

More bad news

I woke up this morning to another flat tire, on the rear wheel. Apparently I missed a thorn, which had worked it's way further into the tire after I changed it last night, so I changed my third flat tire in the morning.

After that it was relatively uneventful until I got to the Capitol Reef area. Then the wind started to really pick up a lot, and of course it was a headwind. I saw some cool petroglyphs on the way in, and then went most of the way down the scenic drive in the park, until I was going up a steep road into a strong headwind, and didn't think I would see much of anything different I kept going. The way back was much nicer with the downhill and the tailwind.

That was until I got back to the campground area, where my rear tire blew out completely. I pushed my bike into the camping area and started to change the tire again, when I realized that the actual tire had worn through, and not just a popped tube.

I sat there for a bit trying to figure out my options until the camp hosts stopped by. I asked them about the area, and they didn't think there was anything close but offered to call the rangers. A bit later a ranger stopped by and told me he was going to call a place in the nearby town, about ten miles away. He took the info about the tire and rim and then left. A while later he came back and told me the store did have a suitable tire but that they would close in ten minutes. He offered to drive me and my bike there, so I threw everything in the back of his truck and he drove me into town. We arrived around 4:05 and the store was supposed to close at 4:00. Fortunately the owner hadn't arrived yet to lock up, so I was able to buy the new tire. It's a bit wider than the one I had, and more of a mountain bike tread, but it fits just fine. For $27 I was able to get back on the road and didn't even have to hitch a ride or take any extra time to get things up and running again.

Flats

I posted my last update from a picnic table in Hanksville UT where I was sitting with three other bikers who were headed east. I had already done fifty miles to get there and was planning on taking a break in the shade anyways so it worked out nicely. I know I made a post about how I hadn't had any flats yet, an it seems like I jinxed myself.

After taking care of everything in town I left, planning on spending several hours in the shade of a bridge by a river. I managed to get down to he water ok, and spent several hours relaxing in the shade. I realized that I had pushed my bike through some prickers to get there, since I was pulling them off of my socks, but didn't really think much of it. After I was done with my break I pushed my bike back u to the road, where I realized that both my tires were flat. Since I had been with my bike the entire time I knew it was punctures and not just someone letting the air out.

Replacing both tubes was interesting, since I was sitting on the side of the road with my bike completely in pieces. I started fixing one flat with a patch kit, when I decided to just use the two new inner tubes I had bought, and I would fix he flats later in camp. When I was part way through that I realized that the valves on the new tubes were different, being presta instead of schrader. I wasn't sure if my pump would work with these, but I knew some pumps were interchangeable. It took some work on the pump, and I had to take apart the pump head an reconfigure it, but eventually I got the two new tubes on, got the tires on the bike, and got them both inflated with air. Now I'm just hoping that the sharp points I felt on the inside of the tires were the only ones, and that I was able to fully remove the sharp bits. Otherwise I'll end up with more flats tomorrow morning.