The great tire debacle

I am sitting down to right this post after a having now recovered from a 24 hours period of tire mayhem. It all started at 2.30am Thursday night when the valve off my 'vintage' inner tube exploded making a terrifying sound that had me thinking someone had been shot in the lounge room.

Until then I had been winging it, figuring if I got a flat I would hop on the bus with my bike.. a fairly unrealistic plan to say the least. This flat seemed like a good reason to finally go and get a pump, some tire levers, a patch kit (quite a dodgy looking sticker patch but that was all they sold and I didn't actually have a hole to patch..this was really just emergency supplies) and a new inner tube. Things went fairly swimmingly getting the new tube on in record time before I was heading out for the evening to see a friends band. Things when pear shaped almost instantly when my new tube seemed to get a flat really quickly for no apparent reason...no sharp things around... maybe pinched by the tire lever? who knows..anyway..its all good, seeing as how i now own all the things to fix this situation... I quickly patched the hole of unknown origin and got back on my way to see the band. Sadly..the shitty sticky patch lasted all of half an hour before it started to leak..leaving me outside a petrol no where near home OR where I was going to attempt a second patch. It was quite a vibrant petrol station, some folks asked me if they could buy weed..others offered to sell..neither party had an inner tube for sale (or connections that were holding). The second dodgy patch got me to the band venue where i could comfortably sit down with a beer and text all my local contacts (both of them in the silverlake area) to try and find a new tube for the trip home.

So..fast forward a few hours..beer and bands..and its getting late..the patch definitely does not hold air for more than 5 minutes (and I have an hour ride home)... Fortunately my friend in the band was the hero of the evening with a spare tube in his car...so..tire off (for the fourth time) tube in (for the fourth time)...tire back on (you get the idea)...finally on the road on the way home...only one minor incident with a broken front light and getting a little lost and i was back home, within 24 hours of this whole saga starting.

The moral of the story? I am ALWAYS carrying a spare inner tube now.. along with an accumulating number of tools..being stuck far from home with a flat tire is not my scene..though begging locals for inner tubes was kind of fun.


Now I have a reasonably domestic weekend ahead, having had enough excitement for one weekend already. I am waiting for my clothes to wash now and tomorrow am going to attempt to not only get some food into the house, but also to cook and eat it. I started today pretty well with a pretty decent breakfast burrito (though lunch AND dinner came from the vegan pub OTR from the kitchen).