Harpooned

On yesterday’s ride, I was the lucky recipient of this Harpoon/Nail/?????? :

Don’t ask me what it is, but I would like to extend my deepest appreciation to whoever is responsible for it being on Redington Road.

I was heading back through town, where Redington is paved, in big ring, pedaling above 20 mph. Clank, rear tire locks up, goes flat and I’m skidding on a flat tire. It’s nothing too serious except for the gaping hole in my tire (ripped as the harpoon was skidding my rear tire). With some creativity (and all the wrappers/tape/patches I had) it was holding and only slightly bulging.

The prospect of riding 15 miles back through town on this tire was somewhat dubious. I wasn’t even able to test the dubiousity of such a prospect, though. I was carrying a brand new Blackburn self-sealing tube as my spare. It was utterly worthless. Complete and total crap. As soon as I took my pump off it, it was leaking air like crazy out of the valve stem. I tried everything I could (tightening the core, bending things, etc), which resulted in the tube holding 40 PSI for no more than 60 seconds. Perfect.

Those 60 seconds got me within walking distance of circle K, where I spent the next 2 hours awaiting a pickup. I was screwed.

That incident aside, it was a great ride. I was climbing Redington in slightly under an hour from my house. I kept the pace high to the top, enjoying firm traction. I dropped down at Three Feathers, then decided to head for the high loop. The place was deserted, and the tuneage on my mp3 player was treating me right. The climbs just felt good; I felt good.

The race next weekend out here is going to be desperate. I somewhat hate to miss it (the 200K mtb challenge in Mexico has trumped it), but in the end I think I enjoyed my ride out there more than racing on it. But it is very nice to see a technical route with a fair amount of climbing. The descent coming off the high loop by the falls is going to be very desperate, if not impossible, during a race.

Speaking of the falls, they were running nicely: