Well damn, 7 punctures in 3 days, a new tyre a new tube a Garmin and a pair of glasses. Not exactly what I envisaged for December but you never know whats round the corner.
Up until the weekend I'd been running Gatorskins with slime tubes as I freaking HATE punctures, what with Gators being the 'best selling winter tyre' in the UK (their claim not mine) and slime to double up my protection I assumed miles and miles of undisturbed riding. Invincible I felt, untouchable. Don't get me wrong, I have been running the Gators for at least 1000 miles without any issues but this past week has put their invincibility or my opinion of, in to check. 2 punctures on the front on Thursdays ride to work and I just kept rolling, obviously I lost tyre pressure as I continued to ride to seal the hole but all in all I made it to work on a soft tyre having not once needed to get off my bike, win. I added air to the tyre for the ride home and I had no problems. Pumped the tyre up again that night to around 115psi all set for the following day feeling quite proud having dodged the puncture 'bullet'.
Riding to work on Friday morning and on no less than 4 occasions I had air pissing from the front tyre, again. 4 freaking times! this was getting silly.
'Right, fuck it, that tube is coming out' I just assumed having amassed 6 seperate holes in 2 days the slime was probably mostly over my jacket and mudguard and beyond the point of helpful. So Friday lunch time I took out the offending tube and checked the tyre thoroughly and felt as though nothing was imbedded in the tyre. Externally the tyre looked like Beruit BUT I felt nothing pierced the carcus.
New tube in, ride home done, sweet. I'm good, on the road again. Forgot about it over the weekend and got drunk. Riding to work on the Monday and again all was sweet.
Now I have ocd so, like I do everyday I checked my tyres at lunch. Fuck it. Another puncture. Now this was taking the piss. Oddly this was the first day I commuted with no multi tool, no tyre levers and a tube too big for the tyre (twat). Off to my LBS in the wonderful Staines. Nice shop, nice gear, nice service, 'proper road bikers we are mate, none of that Evans sell you down the river shit, we care cause we do'. Fair enough. Tube out, tyre off the guy finds the hole and its on the outside of the tube, no fault with the rim then (my get out clause). He proceeds to check the tread of the tyre, there, there, there, there, there... this goes on for about 5 mins 'jesus mate this tyre is toast'. It soon became clear that picking road debris out was getting us no where.
New tyre, new tube. Not had one of these before, felt dialled on the ride home mind and I only paid the online price. pphheww. The Bonti has more tread than the Gator and the reviews are good for puncture resistance, lets see how long this one lasts......Ironically my rear Gator remains strong and true.
Jesus I go on. Online diary right, you don't have to read it! The Garmin is amazing, although I do feel it will be my downfall. Check out the Strava dashboard, yeah I posted slow times but no point peaking too soon. Nice new glasses too, no more freezing eyes.
Off to make hot chocolate. Enjoy
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