{"id":77585,"date":"2023-01-09T12:08:34","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T12:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/?p=77585"},"modified":"2023-01-09T12:08:34","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T12:08:34","slug":"rain-wind-and-a-tyre-blowout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/rain-wind-and-a-tyre-blowout\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain, Wind and a Tyre Blowout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tyre Blowout... What Do You Do?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B0Xo1MnII9o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saturday&#8217;s ride was always going to be a little interesting. The weather wasn&#8217;t great, with rain falling fairly constantly early on. I prevaricated a bit, but decided to do 100km or so circuit around Hertfordshire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So fully layered up in Gore-tex and waterproof shoe covers (which never stay fully waterproofed), I headed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All was going well, and I was looking forward to a caf\u00e9 stop at Spokes CC in a few kms time, when I heard a massive bang. It sounded like my tyre had blown out &#8211; always the most spectacular of punctures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had my GoPro running at the time as it happened, and although the microphone on my older model isn&#8217;t great, you can hear the noise of it in the first few seconds of the video above. You can also hear my exclamation as I heard it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I pulled over to the side of the road in the small village I&#8217;d just entered and set about fixing the puncture. Typically, the rain started to fall a little heavier as I did it. When repairing a puncture, it&#8217;s always wise to find the hole in the damaged tube first of all, and then check the tyre to ensure that whatever caused the damage in the first place isn&#8217;t still lodged in the tyre. I couldn&#8217;t feel anything, but I did notice that the hole in my original tube was pretty severe &#8211; beyond fixing with a regular patch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I replaced the tube with my [sole] spare one, and then used a CO2 cannister to rapidly inflate the tyre. All looked good, and I was about to replace the wheel when I noticed a bit of my tube bulging around the edge of the wheel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s not good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Closer inspection revealed that the replacement tube was bulging <em>through<\/em> the tyre itself, because the tyre&#8217;s sidewall, near the rim of the wheel, had split.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Split tyre sidewalls are not great, and tend to  be terminal for the tyres involved. So now it was a question of seeing how far I could get, or determining if there was a way to patch up the tyre sidewall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The easiest thing to use is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parktool.com\/en-int\/product\/emergency-tire-boot-tb-2\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.parktool.com\/en-int\/product\/emergency-tire-boot-tb-2\">Tyre Boot<\/a>. These are temporary tyre patches that you can use to get yourself home. Frustratingly, I <em>used<\/em> to have one of these in my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.velopac.cc\/ridepacs\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"http:\/\/www.velopac.cc\/ridepacs\/\">RidePac<\/a>, but when I lost my previous RidePac a few months ago, I neglected to restock one in my replacement that I now carry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had previously read that a <a href=\"https:\/\/road.cc\/content\/review\/224229-bank-england-five-pound-note\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/road.cc\/content\/review\/224229-bank-england-five-pound-note\">banknote<\/a> would do the job in a pinch. The Bank of England has changed over to a form of polymer banknotes over the last few years, and they&#8217;re super-tough. I always carry a little cash in the form of a banknote on me, for caf\u00e9s or shops that either won&#8217;t accept cards, or have card minimums that I&#8217;m spending below. That might be a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I thought I&#8217;d check first how close I was to a cycle shop. I didn&#8217;t hold out too much hope. I was in a small village and while I was heading in the direction of caf\u00e9-repair place, I knew I was still a fair distance from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But opening Google Maps, suggested that I was close to another bike shop. <em>Very<\/em> close. In fact 200-300m away from one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was extraordinary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You do need to be a little careful with Google Maps sometimes. Occasionally it will suggest there&#8217;s somewhere where you know there isn&#8217;t, or it&#8217;s a mailorder place operating from a domestic premises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I walked around the corner, entered a small courtyard, and there was a little bike shop, the door open. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.appscycleworks.co.uk\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.appscycleworks.co.uk\/\">Apps Cycle Works<\/a> at the Bike Bay is only open on Saturdays during the winter, although they have a sister premises a couple of miles away that&#8217;s open during the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The chap there happily sold me a new Gatorskin tyre to replace the one that had split, and picked up a new tube as well just in case I had problems on the way home. We had a nice chat while I fitted things myself. I honestly couldn&#8217;t believe that there was a shop there at all. But it&#8217;s a popular area for cycling in the summer. What&#8217;s more, there&#8217;s an adjacent tea shop &#8211; Emily&#8217;s Tea Room. So after I&#8217;d got myself up and running again, I warmed up with an Earl Grey and a tasty chocolate brownie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the time I set off again, the sun had even come out. For a bit anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is perhaps my &#8220;luckiest&#8221; bike mishap in terms of location that it&#8217;s possible to have. Although it comes close to the time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/ridelondon\/\">some years ago<\/a> when I buckled my wheel badly on a pothole during Ride London, and was fortunate to find an open bike shop right there on the route who sold me a new wheel, and got my old one trued back up for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the other hand, while Gatorskin tyres are pretty hardy, and I don&#8217;t think this one is quite two years old. So quite what caused that sidewall split isn&#8217;t clear to me. It has done a lot of mileage though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday&#8217;s ride was always going to be a little interesting. The weather wasn&#8217;t great, with rain falling fairly constantly early on. I prevaricated a bit, but decided to do 100km or so circuit around Hertfordshire. So fully layered up in Gore-tex and waterproof shoe covers (which never stay fully waterproofed), I headed out. All was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,21],"tags":[56,557],"class_list":["post-77585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycling","category-video","tag-cycling-2","tag-video"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77587,"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77585\/revisions\/77587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}