Rides 5/5: what's that hissing sound

It was bound to happen eventually because it hasn't happened in a while, but now it has, so maybe that means it won't happen again, but maybe not. I caught a flat.

I'm not sure when it happened other than on the way into work. It might've happened right before the guy who shoaled me turned around at the red light at North Capitol and R to warn about the broken glass on the road. Occam's Razor suggests that would be the case. Occam's Razor, when run over, would also likely cause a flat. I guess I noticed it before I got to work, but I didn't really put it together. The front tire, from which the air seeped, felt a little weird when turning. "weird," I thought. Then I put the bike away from 8 something hours. Then I came back and bounced the front wheel and that's when I noticed.

At first I thought I could just ride it home, but then I decided that I'd just change the tube. So, outside of work I flipped the bike over, removed the wheel and set about removing the tube. The tires are 2.35 inch Schwalbe Big Apples, so they come off pretty easily. I thought about a patch, but eh. Patches are for tweed jackets. Before putting in the new tube, I decided to spend some time looking for the puncture. I didn't find an obvious culprit, but I did find a goodly amount of glass and other sharp things wedged into the tire. I picked it out from the rubber using the small key that unlocks the padlock to my backyard fence. I'm not sure if that's an officially approved method, but it seemed to work. The size of the glass shards/other sharpish things varied, but I think I got them all out. I guess we'll find out.

New tube in, I did the best I could to inflate it with my hand pump. My best wasn't very much. Admittedly, I could've tried harder, but I figured that I should get the tire inflated far enough to ride to somewhere I could properly inflate it and I did, after riding down the hill and away from work to The Bike Rack at 14th and Q. They have a nice pump outside and the pump even comes with instructions. [Instruction 1: put air in tire. Instruction 2: See Instruction 1 are not the actual instructions]

From there on, the ride was fine. Now I get to worry if I actually got out whatever caused the puncture. It's best not to worry too much. Que sera, sera. Flats happen when they happen. It's all very mystical and mysterious. I actually believe this.