Puncture, White Van Man, & lessons learned
Posted: 21 Feb 2009, 5:15pm
Went out today on a 35 mile there & back to pick up a saddle I'd bought for the missus off ebay. It's been really warm & small breeze, the roads to the pickup are pretty good, perfect day out I thought.
All going well then psssssssss, I'm about 2.5 miless from the pickup when I run over something that I failed to see only hear as it rips through my fairly new Conti Gatorskin(rear). This is my first puncture in about 3 years.
Gutted as I didn't have a spare(careless on my part) which wouldn't have helped much as the tyre had an 1.5" gash diagonally across the tread all the way through.
I walked the rest of the way & then thought now what.
Anyway i'm thinking I've got a long long walk home so I start off and hang my thumb out just in case.
Within 1 minute a white van beeps me & pulls over, I get a lift for 10 miles. I'm thinking result cos their are cycling paths from there & I can go really slow & trundle with my weight forward off & on.
I walk/trundle for about 3 miles, the shortest route is walking by the main road, then suddenly the guy who had given me a lift pulls over in his car with family in tow & he gives me a lift all the way back to within 10 minutes walk of home.
i was very grateful!
My lesson learnt, ALWAYS take a tube/pump/tools on longer journeys, not sure how much it would have helped given the large rip in the tyre but I'm annoyed I didn't see whatever ripped into the tyre, I'm usually so vigilent.
Maybe I'd gotten over confident given it's the best day of the year so far.
It also restored faith in humanity after having a lot of bad car incidents/near misses of late.
All going well then psssssssss, I'm about 2.5 miless from the pickup when I run over something that I failed to see only hear as it rips through my fairly new Conti Gatorskin(rear). This is my first puncture in about 3 years.
Gutted as I didn't have a spare(careless on my part) which wouldn't have helped much as the tyre had an 1.5" gash diagonally across the tread all the way through.
I walked the rest of the way & then thought now what.
Anyway i'm thinking I've got a long long walk home so I start off and hang my thumb out just in case.
Within 1 minute a white van beeps me & pulls over, I get a lift for 10 miles. I'm thinking result cos their are cycling paths from there & I can go really slow & trundle with my weight forward off & on.
I walk/trundle for about 3 miles, the shortest route is walking by the main road, then suddenly the guy who had given me a lift pulls over in his car with family in tow & he gives me a lift all the way back to within 10 minutes walk of home.
i was very grateful!
My lesson learnt, ALWAYS take a tube/pump/tools on longer journeys, not sure how much it would have helped given the large rip in the tyre but I'm annoyed I didn't see whatever ripped into the tyre, I'm usually so vigilent.
Maybe I'd gotten over confident given it's the best day of the year so far.
It also restored faith in humanity after having a lot of bad car incidents/near misses of late.