Preparing for today’s bike ride I performed a tire inspection on the Cervelo Caledonia, the bike I planned on riding. No problems on the rear tire. The front tire sidewall cut from Thursday showed the black patch protruding. I thought a boot cut from an old tire might solve that but after inserting it the cut looked big enough to replace the tire. Replacing the tire with a new Continental GatorSkin 700x28mm I checked my maintenance records to see how many miles it had. Originally installed as a rear tire on 3/3/2023 at 6213 miles meant the tire had 4600 miles. Without the cut sidewall it could’ve lasted another 2000. The Cervelo was ready to ride now.

I rolled away at 9:20 AM on the Cervelo to ride the Atascocita – Huffman – Walden route like I do on many Saturdays. Hopefully I wasn’t too late to see other cyclists. It turned out I wasn’t too late with other cyclists passing on FM1960 over Lake Houston and Fairlake Lane. On the way back to Kingwood there were 3 cyclists at Donald’s Donuts when I stopped for a glazed donut myself.

I rode towards Walden and stopped on Pine Echo Drive because the blooms on these trees looked beautiful.

Continuing through Walden at Farmingham Road I turned left to see if the Atascocita Hike and Bike Trail connected. I found it by the church and rode from Farmingham to W. Lake Houston Parkway. The trail looked new with some places waiting for grass sod to arrive. The video shows the trail. This new section goes under FM1960. Under FM1960 the recent flooding left mud on the trail and my rear tire slipped as I pedaled the incline up. Flood debris hung on the railing under the bridge. I will ride this trail now that I know about it.

Biking back into Kingwood north of the river the front tire didn’t feel as firm. Before crossing Kingwood Drive I squeezed it, softer than when I started. I altered the rest of the route to get back home before it went flat. I finished at 11:58 AM. Before inspecting the flat I finished watching stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia. I pulled the tube out expecting the Thursday patch to be the culprit but it wasn’t. A pin hole about 15″ away from that patch was the problem. Running my fingers around the inside of the tire didn’t find the cause so I will chalk it up to pinching the tube when I put the new tire on. I patched the TPU tube and put it back in the tire. Hopefully this fixes the front tire for many miles.