Hi all. Had the bike for almost 3 weeks now and been to DM twice (sort of) and it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. In fact it's been a complete and utter disaster! If you've got a spare 5 minutes then read on and I'll tell you all about it
First attempt was the weekend before last. The day started well, the sun was shining it was nice and warm, perfect cycling weather. I was having a whale of a time whizzing along the Birmingham & Fazeley canal with zero effort. I was almost near the end of the journey when it all went belly up! I slowed down and moved over to allow some walkers past and in doing so I lost my balance and scraped my hands against a thorn bush, cutting both. Dusted myself off and carried on riding and noticed that there was a large twig stuck between the front wheel and the fork. On closer inspection it was covered in thorns and was stuck in the front tyre. I pulled it out and heard a short hiss of air then silence. I thought I'd got lucky and carried on riding for a few minutes and heard a sudden loud hiss and the tyre went completely flat
This is where I was when it happened:
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I was about half a mile away - so close yet so far! Spent the next 10 minutes panicking until I gathered my thoughts and rememberd that there's a retail park further up the road and I thought there's bound to be a Halfords there so off I went, pushing a 26kg ebike for what turned out to be 2 miles! I stopped off for a rest at Fazeley Square and glanced over at the rear wheel and noticed I'd picked up another bloody hawthorn twig
Pulled it out and yep, you've guessed it - another flat tyre! Anyway I continued my journey up to the retail park and eventually found a Halfords (it's right at the opposite end, literally the furthest point from the entrance!) and they fixed the punctures which cost the best part of 30 quid lol So now I was back on the road off I headed to DM, it was past 4pm by the time I arrived so I didn't even bother going in and was worried about getting home before it went dark.
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Time to try and get home. I didn't want to go back along the canal and risk another flat so I had to ride home via the 110 bus route which was horrible
The route involves about 4 miles down the A435 before you return to normal roads, and I had to deal with cars and huge lorries flying past at 40+mph. Once I left the A road the rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful and I eventually made it home.
So that was my first attempt. Hardly what I had in mind, but I decided it wasn't going to put me off so I spent the next few days relearning how to change a tyre and replace a tube. Let's just say it's a LOT more difficult than it used to be! I haven't owned a bike in 30 years and back in the day it was a piece of cake to fix a flat, I must have repaired hundreds of punctures without a problem when I was a kid. These days however just removing the tyre bead from the rim of the wheel is nigh on impossible without breaking both thumbs and shouting words that would make a sailor blush! I eventually managed to remove the tyre and did a few practices of replacing the tube and I thought I'd cracked it and was fairly confident that I'd be able to do it out on the road...
2nd attempt - packed all the required gear to deal with a potential puncture and off I went. The journey went well and I decided to make a slight detour by leaving the canal shortly before it all went wrong last week and went along Bodymoor Heath rd past Villa's training ground and the A4091 to DM.
I made it! No punctures. No cut hands. No wasting 30 quid. Yippeee!
Had a quick ride around and spotted the security truck and went over to ask where the best place to lock the bike up was. The green fence next to the entrance was his reply! lol He assured me that it is covered by CCTV so that's where I parked up.
Spent a few hours in the park before heading home. Went back the way I came and rejoined the canal next to Marston Farm Hotel. Sat down on the bench for 10 minutes to catch some late afternoon sun before heading back. I think you can guess what is coming next...
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I have no idea how this happened. I heard nothing. The tyre was fully inflated when I sat down and 10 minutes later this? How?
No need to panic - I've prepared for this, right? Well, I thought I did. It took me half an hour just to remove the bead on one side of the tyre. In theory once one side is removed the other side should be easy. However that wasn't the case. I tried everything to remove the other side but it just wouldn't budge. Now I was starting to panic - it was approaching 5pm and only about 90 minutes of daylight left. There was only one option - put the wheel back on and push the bike home.
So that's what I did. 12 miles back to Brum. As i've mentioned in the past I have bad legs (Post Thrombotic Syndrome) so just walking that far is something I thought would be impossible let alone having to push a heavy ebike too!
90 minutes later the sun was setting:
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I'd covered about 4 miles by this point - only 8 more to go! I had to keep stopping every 10 minutes as my legs were starting to cramp and it took me 5 hours to make it back to Brum. Five bloody hours.
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I still had 3.5 miles to go to get home and by this point I could barely stand up nevermind walk or push a bike so opted to do the thing you're never meant to do with a flat. Ride it! Apparently it ruins the tyre and can break the wheel but to be honest I was past caring and I just wanted to get home and go to bed! I rode it super slowly and eventually made it home.
So there we go. Complete nightmare! 3 days later and my legs still hurt! Will I do it again? Actually YES lol
I've decided to invest in some better tyres (possibly tubeless) before my next attempt. I'll probably wait a month or so before trying again, and hopefully some kind soul will have cleared the path of those dreaded hawthorns in the meantime.
