The Over-Inflated Tyre

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Today, for the first time during a bike ride, I had a tyre puncture. I suspect that it wasn’t a tyre puncture but rather that I over-inflated the tyre, and that due to the wet, gravelly conditions of the roads, the inner tube eventually failed.

The irony is that it’s because I checked the tyre pressure that the incident occured. By checking the tyre I inflated it, but when I saw the pressure was fine I decided to inflate once or twice more. That’s why I had the catastrophic failure of the tyre. By catastrophic I mean "minor inconvenience.

The Learning Experience

The learning experience wasn’t changing a tyre, or that you can over-inflate a bike tyre. The learning experience was learning to change a tyre while people get cold waiting on a cool February morning.

Changing a tyre when you’re alone is relaxed. You get to the side of the road, you remove the damaged inner tube, replace it, and then set off again. When you have an audience the steps are the same, but you don’t want to keep people waiting. I struggled a little, and eventually I was ready to set off again.

When I sped up I felt the "tap, tap, tap" when I sped up. I know what this is. It’s the inner tube that became twisted within the wheel. That’s when I told someone with the group that I was aborting the ride. I didn’t want to make them wait a second time, given that people were cold the first time.

I cycled to a sports centre and I deflated the inner tube, unseated the tyre, visually inspected the inner tube. I sat down on the floor and slowly, with patience, checked that the inner tube was in properly this time. It had become twisted as I had suspected.

The last time I had a twisted inner tube I was heading down at full speed from La Rippe down to Crassier when the rear inner tube burst. Luckily I recovered and was able to stop safely.

Further and More Waiting

If I had stayed with the group, and continued riding, and the tyre had blown a second time, then I didn’t have a second inner tube so I would have been stranded, and those people that were cold would have been even colder. It made sense for me to abort the group part of the ride, fix the problem and then head home.

And Finally

Tyre punctures are common and people are patient. There is no pressure to fix the problem in 30 seconds or less. You can take your time, and people are relaxed. Every time someone has had a puncture the group has given them time to fix the issue. I suspect that when this happens again I will be calmer, more methodical, and more relaxed. I will fix the problem and continue the ride.