Blowout!

Sunday morning was a wonderful day, so I decided that we would take the bike to drop KJ off at religious school. We've done it in the past, and it is always a pleasant ride. Traffic is light, and most of the route uses bikelanes. The only issue is making sure we leave early enough that we don't have to rush to get KJ to school on time. School starts at 10, and we left at 9, so I thought we were in pretty good shape.

We had gone a little over a mile, cruising down Edgewood Avenue, when suddenly there was a loud Bang! from the rear of the bike. We've never had a flat sound that loud. I stopped the bike immediately. Our rear tire was flat. We were lucky that this occurred on a level stretch of road, when the road was lightly traveled. Had it happened during a rapid descent, we likely would have taken a tumble.

Years of experience have taught me that you should ALWAYS carry a spare inner tube, along with a pump and the necessary tools to change your tire. Make sure you have a tube for each size tire you are responsible for. Having a spare for your 26-inch mountain bike tire doesn't help when the 16-inch tire on your kid's trailer goes flat.

A first I figured that I had enough time to change the tube. We moved the bike to the sidewalk, took everything off of it (bottles, rack bag, etc.), and flipped it over to remove the wheel. It was then that I discovered that the tire had worn through completely. Even worse, the sidewalls had blown out in several locations, and the tire was unusable. The photo shows the extent of the damage.

We ended up walking the bike back to the house. Fortunately we had enough time that I could drive KJ to school. Later I dug through the garage and found an old tire of the same size (26x1.95) that I could use as a replacement. Unfortunately this replacement tire had more wear that the tire on the front of the bike, so I decided to move the tire from the front of the bike to the rear, and mount the replacement tire on the front of the bike. Your rear tire always wears faster than your front, so it makes sense to have your newest tire (with the least amount of wear) on the back. Once the tires were mounted and the wheels put back on the bike, we were all set.