It was thundering out when I woke up, but I still figured I'd go ride Bike for the Brain. Got rained on pretty good getting there, then the organizer announced an hour's delay.
I wasn't having it, standing around in the rain is way dumber than riding around in it. So I went to go ride around to keep warm, when BAM! I had a blowout in my beleaguered rear tire. Threw the bead clean off the rim, sounded like a gunshot. I've had the worst luck lately on this front, despite buying the best anti-flat tires there are (Marathon Plus Tours). I've had to make warranty claims on two of the aforementioned tires, this is the third one.
The guys at Midwest Cyclery were out to service the ride, and two bike mechanics inspected everything the tire, the rim, the tube, couldn't find a thing that would account for it. A defective tube, perhaps?
Perhaps, but I've had a few lately if that's the case. I'd blame the wheel build, but it was fine for the first 1200 miles or so, the all of a sudden I started having these issues. Mystery flats, now a mystery blowout.
They got me fixed up in time for the ride to be officially cancelled due to lightning. Fair enough, I guess, though canceling an event because of lightning strikes is like worrying about being struck by lightning. I guess there are liability issues if it happened, and visibility was none to great when the rain came down hard which it did periodically.
My solution would have been to go around on the signs and cross out the capital B in 'Brain' and call it Bike For the Rain.
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