I had a flat. The first one I have had on the road/trail in many years. I do not even remember the last time I had a flat on a ride. I wrote recently about breaking a spoke, and replacing it. At the time of the repair, while I had the wheel off the bike I went on and replaced the tires. I had been riding Continental 4000 Grand Prix with the Vectram Breaker for several years. The tires still looked reasonable, but I had noticed some small pits in the tire surface. They did not go to the cord of the tire, but tires are so thin any loss of rubber is a potential concern on the roads I ride on. Still the tires had a lot of miles on them, so it was time to replace them. I purchased a pair of Continental Gatorskin with the Poly Breaker. I purchased them because I had good luck with the Continental 4000, and the Gatorskin had reasonable reviews. I tried to find the Continental 4000, but I guess they have been replaced.
I was riding from my daughter’s house. This was my second longer ride on the new tires. I had made my way through town, and was just about to hit country. I ran into some glass on the road. I did not even see it, but I heard it. I stopped immediately and wiped down the tires, and did not see any glass in the tread. The tire seemed ok, so I got back on the bike, and within a short distance the tire was completely flat. Luckily I was near a trail head for the Bear Creek Trail which provided me with a good place to get off the road.
I was able to pull off the tire and inspect the tube, a small hole from the tread side, not the rim side. I replaced with a spare tube, and inflated the tire. I could have patched the tube, but decided to wait until I got home to insure that I had a good adhesion of the patch.
Never-the-less a flat this early in the life of the Continental Gatorskin really raises my concern level. The newer tires should be able to take broken glass, especially since I wiped them down immediately. I will not take them off immediately, but it is certainly strike one. Another flat, certainly two more flats in the relatively near term will cause me to change tires.
I will give thumbs up to the Portable Mini Multi Repair Tool Kit that I purchase from cyclingdealusa. After finding myself without a tool kit when I broke the spoke, I decided it was time to outfit all of my bikes with some basic tools. I went on e-bay and found an interesting multi tool, with a variety of bike tools all attached together. It has two tire tools, and they worked quite well getting the tire off the rim. The Gatorskin tires are very tight to the rim, and tire tools are needed to remove them. I did get them on using only by fingers, but it was more work than I was use to with the 4000.
Despite the flat it was a nice ride. Upper 70’s and light wind, plenty of sun. I was riding the back roads with some significant hills, short but steep. The traffic was light.
My daughter did point me to a new trail near her house. It is not very long, but all concrete surface and allows me to miss some roads with rather significant traffic. I am sure that it is a product of the Pednet grant that Columbia has had, along with the focus of the former mayor who did a lot for bike paths and bike lanes. It is nice to see so much support for bikes.
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