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.

Falling apart

My bike is finally starting to fall apart. I now have slimed both of my tires, since even the thorn proof tire was going flat. The slime seems to be holding up though.

Also, the tire that I bought back near Capitol Reef has several cuts going straight through the actual tire. Not sure what could have caused that, other than a knife or something, but it is bad news. The actual tread  is still relatively fine though, so I'm planning on using the tire for a bit longer. So far it has almost 3000 miles on it. Not bad for a $27 tire.

The worst part happened today after I did some grocery shopping. My kick stand completely disintegrated. It wasn't just that it came apart, but that the metal actually snapped. To be fair, I did just throw a weeks worth of groceries on the rear wheel, but I wasn't expecting the kickstand, of all things, to break next.

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.

2000 Miles

Today I hit the 2000 mile mark, lost more than a mile in elevation, burned half my brake pads, and got invited into a strangers home.

The mile in elevation was mostly between Camp Nelson and Springville, where I basically fell out of the Sierras. Lots of steep hairpin turns and no should. I had to constantly brake to make it around the turns. It wore my brake pads down a lot, to the point where they were squawking horribly when I got to town.

I had previously sent a warmshowers request to a host in town, but I hadn't been able to check email since then. I found out he wasn't able to host, so I was sitting in the middle of town trying to figure out where I was going to sleep and where the closest bike shop was to get new brakes.

That was when Nancy drove by and asked me if I needed anything. I explained what was happening, and she offered to let me sleep at her house for the night. She and her husband had done a few bike tours, and were already having a guest over anyways. I ended up camping on their lawn, since the guest bed was already taken. I also got my bike fixed up, it turned out to be a few slivers of metal stuck in the pad that were doing the worst of the squeaking, so I didn't even need to go to the bike shop.

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.

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.