so sure enough, i was riding through horse country while my wife was out of town and suddenly got a flat. an inexplicable, didn't run over anything, didn't see anything, completely flat tire.
no worries, i'll just patch it and be on my way. a great plan except that i couldn't find the leak. after 20-30 minutes of partially pumping the tube to try find the leak, i finally discovered that a previous patch had grown weary and allowed air to escape. so i put two patches on it and it held air -- at least it would get me home some 10 miles away.
that is, until i got about a mile and a half away from the house when it decided to start leaking again. hurriedly i slapped one more patch on the tube, reassembled the tire onto the wheel, and began pumping. psssssssss. crap. not again. ok, forget it. i pulled out my spare tube (which also had been previously patched). i pumped it up briefly to see if it would hold air.....and......of course not. so i stuck my last patch onto that little mess, re-inserted the tube into the tire, pumped away, and voila.......would not hold air.
have you ever walked a mile in cycling shoes? or a mile and a half, for that matter? neither have i, nor did i want to. but as soon as i reached for my cell phone, one of the few benevolent souls left on the planet (i'm convinced that 90% of all benevolent souls are cyclists) stopped and gave me his spare tube, no questions asked, no cash accepted (not that i had any).
faith in mankind re-newed, i was finally able to pedal home. so with all that, this ride was 27 miles and took me 4 hours. last weekend, i rode 55 miles over several grueling climbs in the foothills...also 4 hours. i suppose both rides built character, just in entirely different ways.
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