What are the odds?
For you mathematicians out there, perhaps you can tell me the odds of these events:
I was biking home from work on Wednesday, on a lovely evening, when I realized my month old Specialized All Condition Kevlar rear tire had sprung a leak. My bike shop guy had installed this tire when he did some other tune-up things, and told me it would be much more puncture resistant than what I had. Realizing I foolishly did not have the most correct tube, or patches, I called my wife to come get me, but started to change the tube anyway. I found the tire very stiff and had not finished when she arrived, so we loaded the bike into the van and headed for the shop. Mark finished the job in record time (I hate him for being able to replace a tube so fast) and we took the bike home, as well as a proper size spare tube for the tire.
A few hours later, I went out to the garage to get the bike ready for the next morning commute, and discovered the rear tire had gone flat, again. This time I decided to fix it no matter what, and some time later, I had installed the new tube, and cleaned the bike which was desperately in need of it after four solid days of rain. I discovered a tiny pin hole leak in the tube I had been carrying around with me for many months. So, two flats on the same tire in three hours.
It gets better...
Friday I do not cyle to work, and was on my way to work in my car, and my parking space at a friend's home, when I heard a pop and soon realized my right front tire was going flat. These are high performance touring tires, with 45,000 kms on them. I have been driving for some 48 years, and have had one flat tire, in 1999, in all that time. (That time it was on the highway with a tire that had only 1000 kms on it.) I managed to get to my parking space, and after work changed the tire to the small spare, and took the flat tire into the tire repair shop Saturday morning. They discovered a 2" nail in the tread. They repaired the tire, reinstalled it, and I headed home, no more than 6 kms, wondering how I had angered the tire gods so much.
It gets better...
About four hours later, I went out to my car to do some errands, and did not look at the repaired tire on the opposite side of the car. About 100 metres down the road I realized something was not right, pulled over and checked. Would you believe the repaired tire was completely flat once again? So, back to replacing it with the little dinky spare, and my wife will take the flat one back to the shop on Tuesday to yell and scream at them on my behalf. I have no idea what happened; there is no obvious damage or puncture. I watched the tire tech do the repairs and all seemed normal.
Can you understand why I was somewhat reluctant to start using my wheelbarrow for some gardening chores after finishing my errands? However, so far, the wheelbarrow tire has held up. And I even have a spare tire/tube for the wheelbarrow. The tire gods must be satisfied.
Four flats on two tires in four days....
I need another glass of wine.
Turns out that I had picked up yet another nail in the same tire in the course of the drive home from the tire shop, a few kms on main roads. So far, the tire is holding...
I was biking home from work on Wednesday, on a lovely evening, when I realized my month old Specialized All Condition Kevlar rear tire had sprung a leak. My bike shop guy had installed this tire when he did some other tune-up things, and told me it would be much more puncture resistant than what I had. Realizing I foolishly did not have the most correct tube, or patches, I called my wife to come get me, but started to change the tube anyway. I found the tire very stiff and had not finished when she arrived, so we loaded the bike into the van and headed for the shop. Mark finished the job in record time (I hate him for being able to replace a tube so fast) and we took the bike home, as well as a proper size spare tube for the tire.
A few hours later, I went out to the garage to get the bike ready for the next morning commute, and discovered the rear tire had gone flat, again. This time I decided to fix it no matter what, and some time later, I had installed the new tube, and cleaned the bike which was desperately in need of it after four solid days of rain. I discovered a tiny pin hole leak in the tube I had been carrying around with me for many months. So, two flats on the same tire in three hours.
It gets better...
Friday I do not cyle to work, and was on my way to work in my car, and my parking space at a friend's home, when I heard a pop and soon realized my right front tire was going flat. These are high performance touring tires, with 45,000 kms on them. I have been driving for some 48 years, and have had one flat tire, in 1999, in all that time. (That time it was on the highway with a tire that had only 1000 kms on it.) I managed to get to my parking space, and after work changed the tire to the small spare, and took the flat tire into the tire repair shop Saturday morning. They discovered a 2" nail in the tread. They repaired the tire, reinstalled it, and I headed home, no more than 6 kms, wondering how I had angered the tire gods so much.
It gets better...
About four hours later, I went out to my car to do some errands, and did not look at the repaired tire on the opposite side of the car. About 100 metres down the road I realized something was not right, pulled over and checked. Would you believe the repaired tire was completely flat once again? So, back to replacing it with the little dinky spare, and my wife will take the flat one back to the shop on Tuesday to yell and scream at them on my behalf. I have no idea what happened; there is no obvious damage or puncture. I watched the tire tech do the repairs and all seemed normal.
Can you understand why I was somewhat reluctant to start using my wheelbarrow for some gardening chores after finishing my errands? However, so far, the wheelbarrow tire has held up. And I even have a spare tire/tube for the wheelbarrow. The tire gods must be satisfied.
Four flats on two tires in four days....
I need another glass of wine.
Turns out that I had picked up yet another nail in the same tire in the course of the drive home from the tire shop, a few kms on main roads. So far, the tire is holding...
posted by Bill Horne | 3:40 PM
1 Comments:
You probably couldn't have fabricated a more unlikely (or frustrating) chain of events! Stay off of airplanes for the next few days, okay?
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home