The Puncture Spiral

When one little thing gathers momentum and leads to all sorts of unnecessary nonsense....

100 yards from the work bike parking and there's the familiar hiss of a puncture. No worries, puncture kit out. Tyre off, hole found, glue..... Er... The tube isn't empty, but nowt is coming out. Phone has single figure percentage power left. A few texts home and I decide to walk to the Morrisons at the Gyle to see if they have puncture kits. None. By this time the phone battery has gone. Jumping on the tram (if I could) won't solve the issue, so carry on walking to Corstorphine Tesco. Puncture kit and new tube purchased. New tube in. BUt around the valve is a bizarrely wide and hard rubber seal, and the tyre just won't seat itself. So set about patching the hole in the other tube. Done. Back in. Pump up. Then see that what's caused the puncture is a tear in the sidewall of the tyre, through which the tube is now bulging. Tyre off again, try to seal the hole, but just nothing working. Tyre is too soft with not much air in, put in enough to ride and the bulge is massive and will go pop at the slightest suggestion of a pothole or lean. Public phone in store swallows my coins, and from my end doesn't connect (Mel just gets static), a walk of around three quarters of a mile and I finally find a working phonebox, and the pickup lift is arranged for another half mile down the road. Two hours and 45 minutes after leaving my desk and I'm picked up. If I'd been expecting sympathy at this point Mel's first comment is to tell em I'm an idiot. Probably justified. But.

Of course if I'd noticed the tear in the sidewall, and then either gone with my initial plan to grab a train to Waverley, or even Craigmillar (put off by the crowds heading that way and the chances of being told to wait on the platform); or if I'd gone and locked the bike back up at the office and just got the tram and bus home, all would have been avoided, if slightly annoying.

From now on anything that simply takes on a life of its own and gets out of control will be known as the puncture spiral.

Now need to clean up the cross bike to take tomorrow. At least the rest of the week looks dry, so will wait till the weekend to get some new tyres and sort out the commuter.