Puncture gods smile on me; Luke – not so much

This mornings meet with Luke didn’t pan out so well. As I waited at Adamstown train station I could see some lights dancing around at the end of the fernleigh cycle way which I presumed was Luke waiting for me. I went to investigate and found his road bike upside down and Luke with his finger poking through a puncture that extended from bead to bead. The tyre was a complete write off. With a longish ride planned, there was no point fudging a ‘boot’ to keep everything rolling so instead he had started the walk of shame home again and I headed off to Beresfield to meet up with Mclovin.

Nearing Beresfiled I started hearing the tell tale tap-tap-tap-tap on each revolution of the wheel as something was stuck on the rear tyre. I reached back to try to brush it off however whatever was causing the problem was emebeded in the tyre well enough to simply knock my fingers out of the way – not good.

Upon stopping and inspecting, the culprit was an ugly looking metal slither which was razor sharp and had embeded about 4mm into the tread face of the tyre. It seems that the kevlar in the Gatro hardshell tyre stopped it penetrating any further despite my fat arse trying to force it in further while I had continued riding.  Somehow I didn’t puncture and just pulled it out and kept riding. I love those tyres.

Mclovin then proceeded to spank my up every hill between Beresfield and Raymond Terrace and I limped off to work with my tail between my legs.