I feel dumb

sea2summit - 2011-02-20 12:08 PM

So every bike ride what's the checklist? Fix a flat deal, cell, water, etc. Right?Cool so over the last few weeks I've been trying to incorporate my children into my Saturday runs. So I load two into the chariot, grab snacks and the dog and head out for a six mile loop. Now I've got this nice huge pocket on the stroller that's completely empty. We live in the country and it's nice and quite but there are no sidewalks so I run in the road until I see a car comming then move over onto the shoulder (read into the ditch) and maintain the best possible pace while trying to keep the dog from rolling in dead stuff or mucky water and maintain some sort of control over the stroller. Anyway about mile 3.1 of the loop a car approaches so per routine I head for the ditch and after the car passes I get back on the road and the stroller is pulling really had toward the ditch and something doesn't sound right. Well I'm not the brightest bulb but it doesn't take me long to figure out I managed to get a flat. So here I am 2.9 miles from home going the short way and I have a decision, call for reenforcements and wait on the side of the road for the 20 or so minutes it will take the wife to load up the other children and drive here or kill an already 4yo tire. Easy choice. I must say aside from it tracking horrid and making that nice flat tire sound it didn't slow my pace that much, however getting in about of the ditch was a lot more fun...Moral of the story: If it has wheels you should probably take a fix a flat kit.

scott - 2011-02-24 4:37 PM I used to have a trail-a-bike (the kind that attaches to your seatpost) for my kids and I always carried a 20" tube in my seatbag just in case.  It was a tandem trail-a-bike and we used to ride pretty far with it, so I was always afraid of getting stranded with two little kids with me.