my first puncture

[aschendel]

nothing too exciting, picked up a nail or something similar, hard to tell based on what's left.  the rear, a 2CT, was already probably 80-90% used,  HP had them in stock, $150-ish and i swapped it out tonight.

the bike had been feeling funny the last couple of days, i dismissed it as me be paranoid and the heat, but today on the way to work it was perfect out and the bike was both sluggish and wobbly at the same time.  when i parked at work i kicked the back tire and yup, very low.  i didn't look for the culprit, but prayed it would have air in it when i got done working.

it did, but it was L O W, so i took it careful riding home, it was really funny to feel the difference, small bumps going slow felt different, big bumps felt different, different aspects of every turn felt different, all sorts of stuff jumped out at me.

i made it home and it didn't have enough umph to move my (cheap, mechanical) tire gauge and was really hot.  put it up on the stand and spun the tire, found the nail right away.  called HP, had dinner, went to HP, finally got to work on it about 10pm.  pretty routine (it did have a bit of air in it, probably more than i would have guessed), always wish i had 3 hands for this though (and as always, regretted not ponying up for the no-mar system).  it only took 1/2 an ounce, easiest balance i've ever done... got the oil changed too, feels good, looks good.

a.s.

[carlson_mn]

nice work.  I once picked up a wicked nail while in the Black Hills.  I plugged that tire and it held just fine for the last 3k miles of the tire.