Last night when I went to the garage to take the trash out I squeezed the front tire of my road bike. It felt a little soft so I aired it up to 110 psi and didn’t think too much about it. This morning when I returned to the garage to put the trash can back I squeezed the tire again and it was softer than last night’s squeeze. I removed the wheel, got the tire tools, patch kit and pump and went inside the house. I didn’t work on the problem right away because I was watching stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia but after it finished I looked at the outside of the tire but couldn’t find anything that might cause the leak. Next I removed the tube, pumped it up and ran my hand around the tube to feel escaping air. Nothing. Now I filled the bathroom sink up and slowly moved the tube through the water. No bubbles except one or two very slowly rising from the valve stem. Drying the tube off I added more air and went back to the water test. Still no bubbles from the tube but I put the valve stem under water and watched for bubbles. Again one or two escaped at the tip of the stem. I decided the valve core might be loose, went to the garage and brought a wrench back. After a few turns the valve core was tight in the stem. Back in the water and the bubbles were gone. I put the tube back in the tire, mounted the tire and aired it up to 110 psi. I took the tire back to the bike and put my tools away. I wanted to waited 30 or 40 minutes before riding to see if the tube was fixed.

I got dressed and headed out to the garage. The tube was still rock hard and I considered it fixed. I rolled out the driveway pushing the Edge 520 start button at 11:49. Up to now I wasn’t thinking too much about the Edge 520 issues but it didn’t take long for the 520 to beep with a “phone disconnected” alert before I got 1/10th of a mile. The “phone connected” alert followed about 200 feet later and that was all the alerts for the entire ride on the “SR242 – Valley Ranch” route. I didn’t ride yesterday due to rain until shortly after noon. It took several hours for the streets to dry out some. Today the streets were dry but as I left home the sky was overcast and I wondered if I might get wet. AS I made my way out of Kingwood through Woodridge Forest to my right the sky was even darker but not from rain clouds. Something was burning and dark smoke was rising. Not long after I saw the smoke I could hear sirens but I don’t know where the fire was at.

Making my way to the north bound US59 service road I rode to SH 242. The closer I got the more blue sky I saw. The overcast sky broke up and the sun shined through. I left home wearing a long sleeve jersey because the temperature was 73 degrees but now it was warming up and the long sleeves were not needed but at least I didn’t added a short sleeve jersey on top. The wind was slowing me down as I rode to the north but when I made the turn south at SH 242 the wind started helping me and I picked up the pace. I made it to the Stripes station at FM1314 at 1:32 pm, positioning me to get past all of the schools before the parents and buses arrived if I didn’t stay too long at Stripes. My Edge 520 screen when I arrived at Stripes.

I refilled my water bottle and returned to the pump canopy shade to eat my snacks and drink some ice water. It was comfortable with the light wind blowing. I took these weather screenshots while I was at Stripes.

I was back on the bike around 1:54 and rode to the traffic light to cross FM1314. I rode past the Briar Tree schools without any traffic. I made it to the Kings Manor school and again no traffic. Next was the Bear Branch school and no traffic there either. I arrived back home at 2:43. By now the clouds had thinned even more to let lots of blue through. The temperature was 81 and the long sleeve jersey was not needed any longer. I biked 36.51 miles.

Tomorrow’s forecast has a chance of rain but I hope to bike.

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