Malfunction x 2

My former teammate and happy newlywed David Frost posted on the MMBA board that he was doing a group ride at Bennett Park last night, so we headed out there after work. We arrived about a half hour early, so I had time to give my bike some TLC, such as lubing that extremely dry chain o' mine. My tires didn't seem to need any air, so I didn't fill them.

I actually forgot that there was so much trail at Bennett Park. We hadn't been out there since last year. I had fun. There were five of us all together, including one guy who has been joining us for our Monday night rides and a guy Chris used to ride with back in the day.

The guys were quite a ways ahead of me, but they would stop and wait for me every so often, so I had no chance of getting lost. About 40 minutes into the ride, my back tire started to feel a little sloppy. At first I thought I should have put some air in it after all, but it just got worse as I continued to ride. When I caught up to the guys I asked Chris to check it out for me. By that time it felt like I was sliding around like crazy every time I turned or did any climbing.

It wasn't completely flat, but I was definitely leaking a ton of air. I didn't think it was a good idea to ride on it too much longer, but luckily the trail winds around enough that you are never too far away from the parking lot. I told Chris to go on without me and I took a shortcut back to the car. Before I even got back, he had caught up with me. He had a flat, too.

After the ride, I was thinking I sure have had bad luck on the trail lately, but maybe that's not the right way of looking at things. Maybe I have actually had good luck, because both times I had mishaps I was close to the trailhead and had already gotten in a decent amount of riding before the incident.

Besides, something wonderful is coming very soon: