That'll teach me.

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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[XAP]Bob
Posts: 19801
Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

That'll teach me.

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Had to get to work rather fast yesterday, so just chucked the laptop on the trike and got in quite fast.

Thought "Oh, not carrying my main two bags is quite nice" and left the fairy repellent at home again today.

Also decided to cruise up the hill to work, so strayed a little further left than normal.

Well, the fairies have clearly been on the lookout. Nasty visit (but kind driver passing called her husband to come from just round the corner - popped to his shed where he had 6 bikes lined up :) ). It was sufficiently slow that a decent pump brought it back to pressure enough to get to work...

Moral - never forget the fairy repellent, they are always watching.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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meic
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Joined: 1 Feb 2007, 9:37pm
Location: Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen)

Re: That'll teach me.

Post by meic »

I forgot once, years ago and got a 6 mile walk and blisters to help my education.
The fairy enlisted the help of its main allies, the hedge-cutters.
Yma o Hyd
eileithyia
Posts: 8399
Joined: 31 Jan 2007, 6:46pm
Location: Horwich Which is Lancs :-)

Re: That'll teach me.

Post by eileithyia »

I popped across 'town' once to deliver a letter, left my main cycle bag at home, and yes, the fairy visited!
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
reohn2
Posts: 45175
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: That'll teach me.

Post by reohn2 »

Theres this Universal law which states.................
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
iviehoff
Posts: 2411
Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: That'll teach me.

Post by iviehoff »

It has several times happened to me that, needing an unbelievable bit of luck, I got it.

For example, in December I had a puncture that was unmendable at the roadside. (It isn't just that there were no streetlights and the temperature was -5, it was also a tyre so unbelievably tight that I broke all my tyre levers - I got it off with screwdrivers in the end, then threw the tyre, and tube, away). I was pumping furiously, but the distance between pumps had fallen to 500yds. Just at that point, the wife drove by. The wife has never previously driven past while I'm cycling home.

But I do now carry some reinforced tyre-levers and a tyre mounting tool. I've still got one of those tyres on the front wheel.
gilesjuk
Posts: 3270
Joined: 17 Mar 2008, 10:10pm

Re: That'll teach me.

Post by gilesjuk »

I had the idea last night of filling my tubes with tubeless sealant, having schraeder valves makes it easy to squirt it in with a syringe as you can remove the valve core.

Tubeless sealant isn't gloopy sludge like much of the other stuff you get to do the same job (although it need replenishing now and then). It should keep the fairies away.

Can even carry a small bottle of it around, on my bike it will be a lot easier than removing the rear wheel that's for sure:

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... tion-28774
mountainman531
Posts: 69
Joined: 13 Mar 2008, 10:17pm

Re: That'll teach me.

Post by mountainman531 »

I once did a 70-odd mile ride over remote fells, inadvertently without tools, puncture repair kit or spare tube and got away with it, (this is the exception that proves the rule!)

Also, years ago during the autumn hedge cutting season, I had 5 punctures in one day and ran out of patches so, thinking outside the box, I removed a previously used patch cut it in two re-applied one half and stuck the other half over the latest hole. It got me back the last 10 miles! :D
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[XAP]Bob
Posts: 19801
Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

Re: That'll teach me.

Post by [XAP]Bob »

mountainman531 wrote:I once did a 70-odd mile ride over remote fells, inadvertently without tools, puncture repair kit or spare tube and got away with it, (this is the exception that proves the rule!)

Also, years ago during the autumn hedge cutting season, I had 5 punctures in one day and ran out of patches so, thinking outside the box, I removed a previously used patch cut it in two re-applied one half and stuck the other half over the latest hole. It got me back the last 10 miles! :D


No - you didn't know you didn't have the kit...
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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