Rides 8/16

This bike commute started unconventionally for a bike commute, which is to say on a bus. I rode the bus to building where I had left the Bromtpon on Sunday and spent the next 10 minutes fixing the flat that had befallen it. The puncture was on the inside of the tube, so I checked the rim tape, but there didn't seem anything amiss. I've heard of unfortunate happenings related to flats caused by bad tapings, especially on Bromtpons, but I really don't know. It's pretty easy to fix a flat on the front wheel (far easier than the back wheel with the internal hub) since it only requires an allen key, so I guess if I'm going to get a mystery flat, at least it was on the good wheel. I used the Zefal pump that pegs to the frame to pump the tire, but gave up after I had pushed in just enough air to give the tire a moderate firmness that was well below the recommended PSI. After that, it was a quick ride down the hill on Newark and then Macomb and up the hill on Mass Ave to work.

In the afternoon, I thought that I'd try to put more air in the tire, but somehow my attempts at this only resulted in releasing air from it. There's a fixit stand not too far away, so I headed over there, but the pump was broken. Next to the fixit stand was a floor pump, which I tried to use and then think I might've broken it by pushing down slightly askew. Whether it was permanently broken or temporarily so, I abandoned that and switched back to the frame pump for another minimal effort. The Brompton doesn't ride well when underinflated. It's very squirrelly and handles laggardly, but if there's anything I wrongly think about bikes, it's that you can pretty much do anything on them for just a few miles.

So I set off for home the usual way, worried about a pinch flat that never came. The air held, but the handlebars seemed a little off- maybe I didn't right the wheel upon installation?- but I didn't worry too much about hat, being overly consumed with worries about what would happen if the tube exploded when riding downhill on Cleveland. It didn't. It also didn't explode on 18th. The number of streets upon which it didn't explode was numerous. I got home, tried to right the wheel and then added more air. It's back to proper PSI, hasn't self-deflated yet, and should be good to ride tomorrow. Or good enough.