Puncture Prevention - Not Like This

So at the weekend I fixed the slow puncture in my back tyre. It’d been a slow puncture because the inner tube had had the slime treatment.

Any. Way.

I followed the advice of the guy from the bike shop, and used the old inner tube as a tyre liner. After cutting the valve off, I squirted the rest of the slime into the bin, fitted the new tube, with the old one around the inside of the tyre.

So, to this morning. I had a meeting just South of the Tyne Tunnel in Jarrow at 9:30. I was meeting the manager of a local business to talk about cycling, and how easy it is to bike to work. You know what’s coming next, don’t you? A mile from the tunnel, my heavily-laden Sturdy Commuting Bike started acting like it was a full suspension machine, being ridden on ice.

Yep - a flat on the back. And a real one - the wheel pretty much running on the rim within less than a minute of the first hint of a problem.

OK, so repairing a flat isn’t a big deal. Usually I’d just replace the tube, then patch the old one when I got home. Except I’d used my spare tube at the weekend. So I had to patch the flat, which is where it got messy. You see, it turns out that old-tube-used-as-a-liner still had plenty of slime left in it. Instead of the usual 5-10 minutes, it took me almost half an hour to fix the problem, as the first patch didn’t stick, and I only found out once I’d got the tyre back on and inflated.

By that time, my hands were filthy, covered in slime up to the wrists, and I was late.

Looking on the bright side, this is probably the first real puncture I’ve had in years, and it’s certainly the only time I’ve been late to a meeting since I started riding a bike to work. Not bad that - only being late to work once in four years. Try beating that record if you drive!

Filed under: Bike Culture, Bike to Work, Bummer, Cycle, Stuff