Monday, January 25, 2010

Living (well cycling) on the edge - without a puncture repair kit!

After 6 months of puncture free cycling my bike succumbed to one yesterday - as usual it was at the farthest extent of my planned ride - just after Wicken Fen. I have become so used to puncture free cycling that I have stopped carrying a pump and patches with me all the time. I set off late on Sunday afternoon - a late night the evening before (friends round for dinner) delayed the start of the day... However it seemed too nice not to get out for a quick spin. The sun was also visible so I set out for Upware and took this picture of the sun setting over the trees.


P1030902_3_4_5_6_7_8_tonemapped.jpg


The reflections of the boats in the Lode also seemed particularly colourful.It was not windy so the water surface was pretty flat and reflected well. I have cropped the picture because there were telegraph wires in the picture and I did not have the time to photoshop them out.




P1030888_89_90_91_92_93_94_tonemapped.jpg




As it was late afternoon I did not stop to take pictures as I went through Wicken Fen I did pop upto CockUp Bridge though to see whether the sunset might be worth photographing from there. As I set off back down towards Burwell the bumpy ride (the road has a lot of mud and gravel on it) seemed bumpier than ever. The rear tyre had gone flat! I was 20miles from home so I took out the repair tool of last resort - my mobile phone and rang my wife to come and collect me and rounded off the cycle ride with a walk of a mile or so, before getting picked up - I must now go and fix the puncture. It could well be that the tyre is worn out - the last puncture was a few thousand miles/kilometres ago.

No comments:

Post a Comment