With the temperature dropping, we’re heading out for our bike-to-breakfast a little later than usual.

I put in one last effort to fix my RadPower bike before leaving. Yeah, no e-bike for me today. So I put my regular bike on and drove to town. I didn’t eat anything before leaving, so once we got started on the bike ride, I was already getting hungry.

We rode along the canyon. It’s a beautiful ride with all the fall colors. The wind made it a bit chilly, so we made a quick stop for gloves and continued on our way. As we rode, my hunger subsided and I was just enjoying the ride. A few weeks ago we’d gone this route and I couldn’t make it far on my regular bike. A couple weeks ago, I took my e-bike and make it to our normal turn around spot. So, when I felt like continuing on my regular bike today, I thought that was a good sign.

I was doing all well until I heard flapping at the same time I realized there was something strange about my ride. I looked down and saw my front tire had gone flat. Dang.

So, we sent my son on his e-bike back to get my car with the bike carrier to come and pick us up. Then, his girlfriend and I walked back to the parking lot to wait.

After that, breakfast. Finally. (grin)

Once I got home, I decided to throw tools at the the e-bike one last time. The dang thing should have been working, but there was just this rounded screw head that kept tapping against the spokes. I looked for videos that might tell me how to adjust it correctly, but nothing. Just a lot of really boring videos (except for the one video of a chain tensioner on another electric bike that seemed dang simple to adjust — why couldn’t I have one like that?). All I needed was for the tensioner to not be so close to the wheel. So, I grabbed onto it and pulled it a bit toward me. I felt the metal give just a little — enough to pull the screwhead away from the wheel.

I made sure everything was tight, then told my son I was going for a test ride. Bad things happen when chain tensioners fall off (um, big chunk of metal and chain getting sucked into the spokes of a spinning tire), so I wanted someone keeping an eye on me.

Test ride went very well and I let my son know I was okay.

But then, I was still enjoying riding my bike on this beautiful day. We have so few left and I really wanted to take advantage of it. I made the decision to forego working on my publishing (which is what I had planned for this afternoon) to go for a longer bike ride. I wanted to know how long it would take me to ride the 3.5 mile loop on the e-bike. I know it takes me about 40 minutes on my regular bike. It took me less than 20 on the e-bike.

Halfway through the ride, I saw a goat head sticking in my front tire. I tried to fling it out, but it stayed. I kept watching it go around, hearing the slight click of it against the road. A part of me wanted to stop and pull is out, but I had a sneaky suspicion that if I did, I’d be using the walk-assist mode on my bike. Really didn’t want to give that a test so soon after getting it. I waited until I got home and pulled the thorn out. Sure enough, the air started hissing out. Dang. At least I was at home.

Now I have two flat front tires I need to fix before I go out again. I was really hoping to take Merlin out in his wagon. Oh, that has a flat tire now too — the other side from the one I fixed last week. So, I guess I really have 4 inner tubes that need patched now. Dang goat heads. My son has promised to come and slime all my tires for me. That does seem to work really well against goat heads, especially with a tire liner.

It looks like more bike repair is in my future, but patching a few tires is probably something I can handle. Especially while handing out Halloween candy tomorrow night.

Cheers.