Categories: Accessories and GearBreaking The RulesMusings from the V-Bunker

The Race of Truth

The dreaded slow leak

We’ve all felt it; going over a bump or through a corner and feeling that unmistakable bit of slop in the handling that sends your heart straight to your feet. Hoping you’re wrong, you bounce the tire as you roll along, confirming you’ve got a puncture.

But it’s not really flat – not yet, at least. Just softening. The question is, do you stop or do you try to keep going and hope its a slow enough leak to finish the ride? Barring that, can you at least get to a comfortable spot to change the tire, such as the little café near the turnaround point. Everyone who has ever changed a tire knows that changing a tire with a coffee at hand is a civilized way to go about such things.

Or, hypothetically, you realize that you’ve forgotten to bring the little tool that removes your valve extender and valve core, making it impossible to change your tire. Which means you are now committed to a race against your slow leak to get home.

Forget the contre la montre; the real race of truth is the race against the escape of air in your tire as you speed home at full gas in an attempt to avoid a long wobbly walk of shame in cycling shoes.

Spoiler alert: I made it home. Hypothetically.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Puffy says:

Aug 5 2015 at 4:20 pm

@Ron

What is the reasoning behind taking the punctured tube out of a clincher tire for a delicate ride home? I done the ride, but never considered taking the tube out. Thanks!

The first two times I had a flat close to home (and had already used my spare) I found the tube to move around and bunch up a bit (creating a lupy spot) when it is totally flat. The handling was better without the tube in. It's still very hairy especially if the clincher is a loose fit to the rim.
Puffy says:

Aug 5 2015 at 4:26 pm

@piwakawaka

waiting is voluntary on bunch rides, they’re for riding not standing around while people sort their shit.

True, it is. However around here we tend to stick together and look after each other. That's why I aim to make any stop as short as possible! Anyone causing delays unnessesarily is told about it in short order.
frank says:

Aug 5 2015 at 4:30 pm

@LIIIXI

Record carbon.

@Owen

@frank

Wupatki and Sunset Crater national monuments, they run together outside of Flagstaff AZ. Great ride to go out and loop them. During summer a popular thing is to go during a full moon and ride them without lights. I’ve never done that so I can’t comment on the relative safety.

Sounds incredible. That's one reason I have now to go visit AZ.

@Gianni

@mauibike

@chris

Have not been on Orange long enough for a report. It just filled the biggest hole with the least amount of air loss, I have ever seen. The other latex stuff only worked about half the time and the other half the time it was spraying all over me.

Yep, mauibike and I agree on this. The orange really works well (it has nano particles in it, so it must be bitchin’.). Does anyone need a large volume of cafe latex? It seals like ass. I’ve put the orange in, after the fact, on two slow leaks on two wheels. Both are still going strong even though the sealant has dried up in the innertube. And one resealed on the road in seconds when the sealant was not dried out. It’s the same stuff I use for tubeless.

So my on-the-road repair kit is an old visine bottle that holds about 80ml of sealant and a syringe. The syringe holds one of those core removing tools. Best of all, you can have a syringe on your bike so everyone knows you are a cyclist/doper.

Speaking of dopers, not TD, but didn’t that red bearded Italian Paolini of Katusha get booted out of the Tour for cocaine? That was pretty hush hush. Who does cocaine anymore? That does not get him fired? It was during the friggin’ race?

GENIUS. And supervised by a cat named Magnus gives it all the credibility it needs.
MangoDave says:

Aug 5 2015 at 4:45 pm

@Owen

@frank

Wupatki and Sunset Crater national monuments, they run together outside of Flagstaff AZ. Great ride to go out and loop them. During summer a popular thing is to go during a full moon and ride them without lights. I’ve never done that so I can’t comment on the relative safety.

Ah, a great ride. I need to make a journey up there to ride in the cool pines and get some climbing in. I can actually ride tubs in Flagstaff this time of year. In the desert, our summer storms wash billions of thorny bits (from cactus, palo verdes, etc)into the roads, making tubs a big risk.
Owen says:

Aug 5 2015 at 5:22 pm

@MangoDave

@Owen

@frank

Wupatki and Sunset Crater national monuments, they run together outside of Flagstaff AZ. Great ride to go out and loop them. During summer a popular thing is to go during a full moon and ride them without lights. I’ve never done that so I can’t comment on the relative safety.

Ah, a great ride. I need to make a journey up there to ride in the cool pines and get some climbing in. I can actually ride tubs in Flagstaff this time of year. In the desert, our summer storms wash billions of thorny bits (from cactus, palo verdes, etc)into the roads, making tubs a big risk.

Yeah I picked up my habit of front and back Gatorskins in grad school at ASU, then kept it in Flagstaff. Glad I still have the habit, because eastern Washington is lousy with tackweed.
Owen says:

Aug 5 2015 at 5:25 pm

Exceedingly scenic area to ride, although unlike WA there aren't a ton of paved back roads so road riding is limited to a handful of roads, most of them highways. Flagstaff is a town of 70,000 people or so with 8 breweries, so one's recovery options are staggering.
Owen says:

Aug 5 2015 at 5:25 pm

Also, roads.
Oli says:

Aug 5 2015 at 6:49 pm

@piwakawaka

That might be how it is here, but it might surprise you to know that many bunch rides around the world (and even NZ) have a policy of waiting for people to effect repairs, so standing around in those cases can indeed be a valid concern.
piwakawaka says:

Aug 5 2015 at 7:26 pm

@Oli

@piwakawaka

That might be how it is here, but it might surprise you to know that many bunch rides around the world (and even NZ) have a policy of waiting for people to effect repairs, so standing around in those cases can indeed be a valid concern.

maybe they just don't wait for me!
pistard says:

Aug 5 2015 at 8:06 pm

Another good pocket-sized sealant container is a Kodak lens cleaner bottle. Kodak doesn’t make it any longer, but the Tiffen version appears to be identical (fluid and bottle). The little flip up spout is square, and about the same diameter as a valve stem. A 3cm length of 1/4” vinyl tubing press fits over both to squirt the sealant in. This method even works with non removable cores.

The bottle only holds about 40 ml, but I’ve found that half that will usually do the trick. The hole in the spout is quite narrow, so I enlarged it with a drill bit to avoid clogging. I’ve been using the same one for three or four years and it hasn’t leaked.