My plan for today’s ride was to start early enough that I might see a number of other bicyclists on the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route like I have done in the past. I didn’t leave as early as I wanted to (9:54) but I thought I might catch some of the later bikers. Shortening the route slightly (about 2 miles) I thought this might speed getting to FM1960 where other bikers would pass. The plan was working until I hit something with my front tire about 12.4 miles into the ride and flatted the front tire. This happened by the park on Atascocita Shores Drive south of FM1960 so I walked over to the shade and sat down on the curb to assess the situation.

Inspecting the tire nothing jumped out as the culprit. Next I removed the tube from the tire and looked for a hole but didn’t find anything. I tried airing up the tire to listen for the hissing of escaping air but the hole must’ve been big enough that the tube didn’t hold the air long enough for me to hear anything. Net I tired squeezing the tube in sections to isolate the hole but I still could locate the problem. After many tries of squeezing various chunks of tube I finally felt some air blowing on my leg from the tube. This narrowed the search and I found a 3/16″ slit. Now to put the patch on. Roughing the tube with sandpaper I followed with glue spreading it with my finger to widen the area where the patch went. I thought the glue was dry and put the patch over the hole and pressed hard on it to help the glue. Before putting it back in the tire I pumped up the tube and inspected the patch. A section of the patch did not stick and fearing the patch would not hold once it was in the tire I pulled the patch off and used the sandpaper again. This time I put more glue on and widened the spot. Allowing more time for the glue to dry I applied the patch, squeezed it for 30 sections or so. The patch looked like it stuck so I put the tube back in the tire, aired the tire up and waited a minute or so to see if the pressure held. It did. I put all of the supplies back, mounted the wheel. The 20 minutes or so that it took to repair the flat definitely put me out of the window to see any other bicyclists today.

When I rode to FM1960 to go east over Lake Houston I wondered how the patch would hold while I biked over the rough ground asphalt to get to the concrete but I made it. I guess if the patch was going to fail that would be the place. The resurfacing of FM1960 showed no more work from my trip yesterday. Maybe the work crew will lay asphalt before my next ride there.

Making my way along the route I stopped at the Huffman Chevron for a short rest break and to refill my water bottle. My Elemnt screen when I stopped at the Chevron and the weather before I left.

18.4 miles into the ride is less than the usual 20+ but I was there earlier in the day than usual. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the short sleeve jersey was perfect. While I was at the Chevron station a long freight train going east slowly moved by. I saw the last car when I crossed the track on Old Atascocita road earlier and figured it the train would be stopped west of the crossing in Huffman. Once it started moving it went slowly and because of the number of cars the traffic backed up waiting to go south on FM2100. About 5 minutes after that train disappeared going east another train came from the east. That meant the first train moved to the siding just east of Huffman to allow the second one to pass. My youth model train days fuel my interest in trains now.

Leaving the Chevron about 12:03 to ride back to Kingwood the wind slowed me down some. I altered my route a little in Kingwood to get around the Fall Festival at Town Center Park that I made my way through on the way to Huffman. The ride finished at 12:57.

Where I stand mileage wise:

• 210 miles so far this week
• 485 miles for October
• 6,417 miles for the year to date

Great weather on tap for tomorrow (Sunday) and I plan on a bike ride after church and Sunday school.

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