You are reading a single comment by @Bearlegged and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
Bearlegged
My own lazy self
Rear tire on the grav bike is worn to fuck, just a bald collection of cuts and shreds. Got a puncture which the sealant could just about seal but the tire is so bollocksed that it clearly needs changing. But, I think to myself, I'm getting new wheels delivered soon, and can I be arsed setting up a tire on this rim only to have to transfer it across a few weeks later? That sounds messy and tiresome. Fuck it, I think, I'll just chuck a tube in there and ride on the road until the new wheels arrive. I'm a genius.
Cycle forward a month and a bit, and obvs the new wheels have not yet been delivered and I'm still riding around on a ticking time bomb. Except I've just been in France for 2 weeks and have been exclusively riding on the road as all I had access to was a road bike. So I get back to the grav bike and am all 'wooooo off road riding fucking rules" and decide to go and hit a local bridleway as hard as I can. Having completely forgotten after 2 weeks away that there was a real fucking good reason not to hit the local bridleways as hard as I can.
Safe to say that I was reminded of that reason in a big way when I hit a big old collection of cobbles and thought "Oh shit, my rear tire" whilst simultaneously being treated to the sound of my rear tire blowing out. So now I have to change a tube in the dark and in the rain. And did I clean all the sealant out of the tire before putting that tube in? No, of course I did not, as that would have been messy and tiresome. So here I am now, hands covered in sealant and dirt and oil, cursing my lazy old self for not just changing a fucking tire when it needs it.
And that's when the midges come down.