delb0y
Legendary Member
- Location
- Quedgeley, Glos
After my recent run of inexplicable and unexplained punctures I thought my luck might change. Today, out for a slow and lazy 20 miler with the intention of taking some photographs, I leant my bike against a bridge and wandered over to the other side to take some snaps (as an aside, for the second week running on a Sunday morning, my sudden appearance at a bridge side has resulted in startling a grey heron who flew away each time before I could take a picture). Anyway, I suddenly hear a strange noise and the loudest bang I've heard in many a year. Birds erupted from trees, and had the grey heron not already have made his escape, he surely would have done so then. Being out in the country I assumed someone was firing a shotgun a little too close for comfort. Alas, when I returned to my bike I discovered I had a flat tyre. On closer inspection I saw several inches of the tyre wall had failed allowing the inner tube to burst through and explode! Never had that in 40+ years of cycling. Luckily I had some black insulation tape in my pannier - no idea why - but I taped up the tyre wall best I could, put in a new tube, and pumped it up to a massive 20 psi. Then limped home keeping as much weight over the front wheel as possible. Luckily I was only 10 miles from home.
This is where I was:
This is where I was: