...And Other Days You Still Can't Win...

As posted previously, we flatted our rear tire on Sunday while taking KJ to a picnic. Unfortunately the spare didn't hold air either. We finally managed to get KJ to the picnic, and walked the bike back home.

At the beginning of the week the wife was out and about, so I was at home watching the kids and without a means to get to a bike shop. After a couple of days I was able to walk to the nearby K-Mart and get a set of self-adhesive Slime "Scabs" patches. K-Mart didn't have any Presta-valved inner tubes, so the patches were my only option. Wednesday morning I went to install the patches. There were two different tubes I tried to patch, but unfortunately neither of them would hold air. I've previously had good luck using "Scabs" but now I'm not so sure anymore.

While working on the inner tubes I encountered a new problem: An adjustment screw on the rear brake somehow stripped the threaded hole it was in. As a result the screw no longer could hold the brake arm in the proper position, and the brake pad pressed against the tire. I tried a couple of workarounds, none of which worked. Finally on Thursday I managed to get to a bike shop and purchase a new rear brake assembly, along with two new inner tubes (one to install, and one for my spare). Installing the new brake assembly was not that difficult. Shimano included very good instructions, and the process was simplified by the fact that I was using the existing brake lever and brake cables. Thursday night we finally were able to get out, going for an 8 mile ride to Squirrel Hill to test out the new brakes.

All of this has been quite frustrating for me. We have been doing a record amount of riding in June and July, and at the start of August we were only 250 miles from our annual goal of 1000 miles. I was hoping that for August we might set a new one-month record of 300 miles or more. This would be the earliest we had reached the 1000 mile mark, and I further expected we might break our single-season mark of 1201 miles. As of right now, through the first 12 days of the month we only have 48 miles, which is half of what we should have at this point. It is unlikely we will log 300 miles or more this month. We still have an outside shot to break 1000 miles, since we only need another 200 miles.

The most surprising thing in all this has been how upset KJ is that he hasn't been able to go biking. Although KJ has always loved biking, now he really wants to bike. He's become a biking machine. Every morning he asks if we are going biking, and then asks how many miles we will be doing. Presumably a lot of this has to do with the fact that he is done with camp and doesn't start school until the end of August. So biking gives him the structure he needs right now.