Miles to go before I flat

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Sidewall gives out. The tube bulges here and rubs against the brake.

To take a line from Robert Frost, I had miles to go before I flatted, literally.

I’m eating my words about that tire with 7,080 miles. I knew it was about to go, but I pushed it just a bit too far.

I heard a pop, then a hiss and immediately sensed I had a front flat. Fortunately I wasn’t going too fast down Redwood Lodge Road.

I stopped and took off the tire. I found the flat after a short search — a half-inch tube split. Odd. I looked at the tire and didn’t see anything wrong. So I replaced the tube and inflated the tire. All looked normal.

Doh! That was my mistake. All was not normal. Don’t change a tube until you know with certainty what caused the flat.

A quarter mile down the road….hsss! bang! Schiesse!

No cell connection out here, I knew I had to get it right this time. Once again I tried to find the source, carefully inspecting the tire. There it was — a blown sidewall at the bead. Those are hard to see unless you carefully inspect the tire after inflation. Look for a small bulge.

Fortunately I always carry a boot. I wrote about the importance of carrying a boot in a previous post.

It’s tricky to get it positioned just right over a sidewall failure. Be sure you don’t see a bulge during inflation, which means that the boot is properly seated.

I prefer an old piece of tire (minus the wire bead) versus an inner tube, although I also carry a piece of inner tube, which works well for holes on the top of the tire.

I’ve had a sidewall failure before, but I don’t recall the details. It almost always happens on old tires with too many miles.

In addition to a boot, bring money. In a bind I could have gone door to door and begged for a tire off someone’s bike. I’ve also seen dollar bills used as a boot. Bills are stronger than regular paper.

Serves me right. I kept the tire pressure around 50 psi and took it easy riding home.

I added two new Continentals, an UltraSport II ($17) economy tire made in China and a Gatorskin. I’ll rotate the tires and give the wear results in a couple of years. I’m not concerned about performance these days, just tire life/wear.