Once more into the garage, dear friends...

[halfshellvenus]

We've barely crept out of the weather where I have to bike in the garage due to rain or wind, and now we're into the stage where excess heat gets added to the mix. :( By August, a 90- to 94-degree day will not stop me from going outside, but this time of year? I just can't do it.

I managed to get out yesterday (and hit another snake!), and I got out 3 days last week. The first two days went well, Friday not so much. I got a flat tire, and discovered that I could not change it myself! In fact, I had to get help from two different guys working together just to get tire irons under the beaded tire rim to get the inner tube off and replace it with a new one. /o\

This is bad. Everyone knows that Continental tires run tight, but this is on a whole other level. My current ride is a gravel bike that used to have 32c tires on it. I had the shop put on 28c tires a few months ago, because I don't go off-road at all and I'm using it like a road bike. BUT... I now remember that the reason I stopped using 25c tires and went to 26c on my previous road bike was because I couldn't get the 25s on and off without breaking the tire irons. The wheel rims should be the same circumference for ALL of these bikes--only the width should be different. But I wonder if Continental applies some different kind of logic, and shrinks the tire slightly with the decreased width?

I really like the 28s. I'm able to ride faster on them than the 32s. In fact, I had a ride this past month that averaged 16.9mph, and that's the fastest I've ridden in YEARS. Am I going to have to go back up to a larger tire size now? Or can I buy a wire-beaded 28 from a different vendor and see if that works?

Comments

[erulissedances]

I do hope you resolve the tire issue.

- Erulisse (one L)

[halfshellvenus]

I think I'm going to have to. That degree of tightness isn't something that will resolve itself enough over time.

I mean, NONE of us could get the tire-iron under the tire's rim. The two guys that helped me solved the issue by both of them pushing super-hard toward the middle, until the tire shifted into the lower "channel" in the middle of the wheel. THEN they could get the tire irons under it, and it was still a lot of work. I'm kind of wondering how the people at the bike shop managed it. :O

[thewayne]

Sunday we went down for the Mother's Day buffet at our fave Mexican food restaurant. We were just approaching the tunnel that's half-way down the mountain when a squirrel darted across the highway in front of us. No worries. THEN it DOUBLED-BACK. Worries.

It would have been fine, but that double-back ended its much-shortened existence. Bummed me out for a bit, but there was nothing I could have done to safely avoid it.

[halfshellvenus]

/o\ Our bike path is plagued with suicidal squirrels. They lie in wait until you approach them, and then they dart in front of you. People refer to them as suicidal, because they're perfectly safe until they do that!

This is mainly ground squirrels, though. The tree squirrels are a little smarter. I personally think that the ground squirrels try to hide by being "frozen," and then panic hits them and they run for "home." And a lot of time, home is likely to be on the other side of the bike path, so they run right across the middle.

It's unfortunate that their panic almost always coincides with being right in the path of the tire once they DO start moving. :O