The video clip I shouldn’t have stopped to take cost me a flat tire. I was riding on a modified Atascocita – Walden – Huffman route on today’s bike ride. I changed a bunch of streets in Kingwood on the way to Atascocita. On the way back I stopped on Atascocita Shores Drive to take a video clip of a Lake Houston inlet. When I tried to resume the ride the front tire on my Cervelo Caledonia was flat. Turning the tire to look for the cause didn’t help so I walked to Rebawood Drive to find a place away from the traffic on Atascocita Shores Drive. A shady spot at a storm drain under a tree was good. As I was walking there a man on a bicycle rode by and asked how far I still had to go. I told him Kingwood and that I was looking for a quiet place to fix the flat. Later a lady in a green car stopped and asked if I was okay and needed anything. I told her I was good and needed the rain to stay away until I got home.

Removing the TPU tube from the tire I pumped it up to find the leak but it wasn’t obvious. I ran my finger around the inside of the tire searching for the culprit but found nothing. Next I looked at the tire sidewall and found a cut about 10″ from the valve. Returning to the tube I saw a small cut. I guess I ran into something sharp when I stopped to take the video. I rough up the tube, applied an adhesive patch, held it tightly on the tube for a couple of minutes, it looked good. I aired the tube up to check my work and all looked good. Stuffing the tube back in the tire, getting the tire bead back on the rim I pumped up the tire. It held firm and put the wheel back in the fork. While I worked on the flat I heard thunder in the distance and some rain drops hit me and the ground but no more. Dodged that problem. This was the tube I installed on April 29th to fix another flat. Not long enough between flats!!

Prior to the flat the bike ride was going well. The wind was light but the humidity was high. The temperature hung around 84 degrees. I started at 10:59 AM and after the flat tire delay finished at 2:28 PM biking 36.43 miles which is more than this route averages. Changing the streets up made the difference. By the 9th day of the month I should be at 225 miles. Today’s bike ride brought me to 219 miles, 6 short of the 25 miles per day pace needed to reach my 749 mile goal.

After leaving Walden headed back to FM1960 I stopped at Waterhaven and took these photos.