Day 7 was to be an exciting day, we were returning to Canada and also meeting our wives in Welland at my father in laws Bed and Breakfast, "At Home Bed & Breakfast".
We left Brockport in good time and the sun was out again and winds were pretty light. We headed West and rolled along route 31A. The roads again were in good shape and I was really starting to appreciate the wide paved shoulders on New York roadways.
Around kilometer 25 things went south in a big way! I was leading and tried to negotiate my way through a bit of a pot hole mess, and just after I got through it my rear tire instantly blew out. I quickly came to a stop only to find my buddy Kochi had got a pinch flat on his front tire after hitting the pot hole right at the same time.
So there we were with simultaneous tire blow out on the side of the road. We had a little laugh about it and then started the job of fixing everything up. Once I got my rear tire off I realised what cause my flat, I had a big cut right through the tire sidewall! After seeing that I started to get a bit concerned since the tire looked like a right off and we were in the middle of nowhere, with no spare tire.
I went back and noticed a big piece of glass on the road, which must have caused my flat. I didn't even see it.
I took the tire off and decided to try and patch it, since I had nothing else to try. I used a big patch on the inside of tire and two on the outside to try and seal up the cut. I also put a patch on the new tube in the same location to try and give everything a bit more support.
I got the tire and tube back together and started to fill it with air. At this point we were probably on the side of the road for about 45 minutes and someone actually stopped to see how we were doing. The guys name was Dominic and he lived and worked in the area and was also a Tri athlete. He offered a hand and even had a nice bike pump in his truck he let us borrow.
I pumped up my bandaged tire and took it for a test spin. It held but the patch was already starting to bulge. Dominic offered to give me a spare tire he had, but it was at his shop, All Metal Works, that was 25km away! I took his number and he headed back to his shop to get the tire and we'd meet him later. Again I was amazed at the kindness of fellow cyclists and how generous he was!
So meanwhile as I was fixing my problem, Kochi was dealing with his own flat front tire. He got it back together with out to much trouble, but then notice his rear tire was pretty soft too, not flat but definitely leaking air. So off comes all his panniers and off comes the tire and he found a small puncture mark in the side of his tire. He took the time off the wheel and it went right through so he through a patch on the inside of the tire and put a new tube in his rear tire too!
While all this was going on it looked like carnage on the side off the road with tires, tubes, wheels and tools everywhere. It was kind of comical.
Anyway after about an hour we had everything back together and started out with my wounded rear tire. We took the first few km's pretty slow and everything was holding so we ramped up the pace a bit and pushed on for Dominic's shop. After I stated to trust the tire a bit I pushed on harder then normal and tired to maintain 30 km/hr so I could get there in as little time as possible. For us this was fast.
His shop was 25 km away, so it wasn't exactly close. The tire was holding and I was happy as I pushed on. After about an hour I saw his place and was pretty damn relieved! Dominic had two used Trainer tires with him and even a brand new Trainer tire that he gave me, again I couldn't believe it. He also gave me two new tubes to get us rolling again. So I swapped out my now seriously bulging tire and installed his new Trainer tire. I took one of his used Trainer tires too, just in case!
Again I was amazed at the kindness of this stranger who was willing to help us. Turns out he's leaving for Lake Placid next week to compete in his first Iron Man, that's pretty serious business. Good luck Dominic!
So back on the road we go and headed west again for Niagara Falls. We stopped in Lockport for our usual Subway lunch and met a few ladies who where cycling across the States. They started in Settle and are on their way to Portland Maine, very impressive.
Eventually we hit Niagara Falls and found our way to the Rainbow Bridge crossing. We got in line with all the cars as that was what I read we were supposed to do. It was pretty busy so it took us an hour to get across to the costumes officers. It wasn't really fun baking out in the sun amongst the cars, but we made it. Of course the costumes officer says while didn't we cut up the side past all the cars... Oh well, next time!
Back in Canada we passed Niagara Falls and headed for the canal trail which took us right into Welland.
We got to the Bed and Breakfast and were met by out wives and my little boy Jack. It was really nice to see them again after a week away!
So today did turn out to be a pretty exciting day, partially for the wrong reason but it also made for some great memories and furthers my amazement about how willing complete stranger are to help you out. Not sure if it's just a cycling community sort of thing or what, but whatever it is I'm grateful for people like Dominic who took the time to help us and give us things for free to get us rolling again.
No comments:
Post a Comment