The Ride That Didn't Happen

Today I was supposed to bring my bike to work and ride during lunch with Intern John. This ride did not happen due to a flat tire! After I mounted the bike rack on the trunk of my car, I noticed that the rear tire of the Trek was flat. And I mean dead flat... not an ounce of air in it. I hooked up the pump and tried to pump some life into that tire but nothing happened. Since I couldn't stay and mess around with the tire, I called John and luckily he hadn't left for work yet, so I was able to tell him to abort the mission and he left his bike at home.

Tonight after dinner, I decided to investigate the tire problem. I removed the rear tire from the bike, removed the tire from the rim, and then I saw the problem: blowout!



The tube had a rip in it about 7 inches long. I wasn't going to be able to patch this one! I pulled out one of my new Forte puncture-resistant tubes and proceeded to mount the new tube on the rim. I re-mounted the wheel on the bike and put the chain back on. I then inflated the tube to 115 psi and topped off the front tire as well as it was down to about 90 psi.



After inflating the tires, I rode the bike across the street and back just to cycle through the gears and make sure everything was working properly. All was good, and now i'm ready to try for the bike ride again tomorrow during lunch. The only question is ... when did this blowout happen? I rode 15 miles yesterday but when I got home, there was still some air in the tire as I certainly would have noticed a dead-flat tire. The mystery remains...

Total distance: 0.01 miles, ride time: 20 seconds. :)

Update: I found a thread on the BikeForums website where others have experienced the same thing with their tube blowing out well after riding...