Well That didn't work...

My friend Dave over at Ptborides.com has been convincing me to give road cycling a try. I bought a used Trek Road cycle at the end last year off Kijiji and have been riding it indoors all Winter at Wild Rock's Bicycle Gym. Nothing too serious, just enough to keep my legs somewhat fit and shed some of my Winter coat. Today looked to bring beautiful weather so Dave, his wife Mel and I were going to finally get me on the roads for a nice leisurely ride.

The bike was ready to go and I was giving it a once-over around lunch before our 1:30 meetup at the Silver Bean. I was just topping the tires up with air when I heard a little *pop* followed with my front tire completely deflating. Uh oh.. and I don't have a spare tube. Not to fret, Wild Rock is open. I zipped down and picked up two new tubes (one spare for the road). Back at home I removed the tire to find it had popped just at the base of the stem. I shouldn't be surprised as I don't know the history of this bike or conditions/how long the tube had been used.

With the new tube installed I was running out of time (I also wasn't the most adept with this repair as my Mountain Bike tires are tubeless) and just as I was filling it up all I could hear was a hissing noise. With the tire removed again and a closer inspection of the tire revealed that signature snakebite mark...

Well I hate to keep friends waiting and I'm already out of time at this point (and Dave isn't answering his cell), so I hop in the car and drive down to the Silver Bean. What should have been a bike ride turned into social hour as at the cafe were my other friends Julie and Jeffrey as well as two new acquaintances who are avid readers of my other blog PtboCanada.com. It was sad to see Dave and Mel head off on their bikes, but it will give me time to practice patching a tube and putting it in without pinching it. Practice does make perfect... at some point.

From @davidmblondel

Spontaneous @silverbeancafe meet up with @3rdSpaceChurch @lawebster87@evanholt @melblondel @CupcakeJu Ptbo is nice for that sort of thing.