Puncture = Epic Fail!

Friday 10th August

After Wednesday I was hoping for a good positive ride. The sun was shining as we headed for Dawlish Warren on a route with a few hills to start with and then a nice flat run from Powderham.

As we joined the cycle path after Cockwood I started complaining to Ant that it was very bumpy and didn't remember it being that bad. Ant assured me it was always a bit bumpy but once we were back out on the Tarmac road I knew I had a problem. Ant thought it was just my mudguard rubbing my tyre. I wasn't convinced but as we were nearly at Dawlish Warren I carried on. When we stopped it soon became obvious I had a puncture - my first one out on a ride! We wheeled our bikes over to a nice patch of grass in the sunshine and set to work.

Setting to work

Mistake number 1 was not having a spare inner tube with me. Particularly annoying as I've been carrying one in my bar bag for the last 3 years and only took it out on Sunday after my bag got soaked through. It hadn't been put back in because, as I discovered when I got home, it had been hidden under a bag of energy drinks. Hey ho!

So, we set about finding the puncture and fixing it. There was a large shard of glass in my tyre, so we removed that and patched up the inner tube. Then it became apparent there was another hole in the tube. By the time I'd finished checking, I had pulled 4 bits of glass out of my tyre!

Patched up - thought we were nearly sorted

Getting the inner tube back on the tyre proved rather challenging and as both of us were starting to get cold and the light was beginning to fade, we decided to jump ship and catch the train home. Not especially an easy option given that it was a half hour walk back from the station and gone 10pm once we got home, but a lot safer than cycling back in the dark without proper lights.

Waiting for the train

I got up early on Saturday morning to sort out the puncture, determined not to let it ruin our plans for the day. Annoyingly I decided to opt for a new inner tube, as we'd had to put two patches side by side and they weren't sticking to each other very well. In my haste to get it sorted, I clearly hadn't done a good job, as when I went to pump up the tyre, there was a loud 'bang' and a great big hole in my nice new inner tube!

Pinched it - blew a hole in my brand new inner tube :(

o - it was back to square one again! Luckily Ant had surfaced by this time, so gave me a hand. A little test ride later and I was back on track! I also pulled a chunk of glass in Ant's front tyre, so think we managed to avoid another repeat of that experience. Phew!