This bike thing is getting expensive
I really don’t have good luck with tires.
Today I changed my weekend riding plan to bike around where I live. Besides saving the gas I would have spent driving up to Alpharetta, local biking is more relevant to what I’d like to be able to do. The Big Creek Greenway, though nice for a quick 12 mile ride, is built through swamplands, so it’s all pretty flat. The rest of Atlanta, on the other hand, is built on a hill (I guess Piedmont really means it) and has cars that I need to dodge, so riding on roads is a much different experience. I figured that today I could go get lunch at a place on Hammond, using untrafficed side roads to stop every couple of minutes to catch my breath, but my plan was cut short by a blowout. At first I thought that the noise was a firecracker, or maybe a gunshot, but before I could book it away from those punk kids playing at Allen Park, I noticed that I seemed to be slowing down in a hurry, and it turned out that my rear tire was no longer inflated. Somehow that tube that I bought a couple weeks ago had blown out, continuing the tradition I built with my car of destroying the same tire multiple times. This time the tube decided to take my tire’s sidewall down with it, so, besides the half-mile walk back home dragging a crippled bike, I had an extra $25 expense to look forward to.
The bike shop on Belle Isle didn’t have any tires in my size (700×35C), the nearest being one 38mm wide. There was an awkward pause after learning this information as the guy at the bike shop waited for my response and I waited for his advice, but I eventually ended up with this wider tire installed, which apparently became the standard for hybrid bikes between now and the time the bike was purchased. I went ahead and paid the extra $6 to save 15 minutes of work—I’m not sure if a quarter hour of weekend time is worth six dollars and five minutes of waiting, but the last time I installed a tube myself it freaking blew out in two weeks,—and, while I was spending money, I went ahead and bought a patch kit and some brushes so that I’m no longer tempted to clean my bike with the same brush I use on dishes. I ended up spending about $70 today on bike stuff, so I don’t think I’m ever going to save money on this MARTA idea.
All this tire stuff also reminds me that I still need to get an oil change for my car. My tire treads (on the three that weren’t replaced twice already) were down to 4/32? the last time, so I can’t wait to be told about that new big pile of money I ought to spend. Transportation is overrated.