Sidewall Blowout Spectacular!

A day so beautiful that even catastrophic, noisy, structural failure of my bicycle tire (at mercifully low speed) couldn’t ruin it. Took the time to smell the roses, or at least the Mohawk River, actually just sitting and watching the scenery at the Niskayuna train station along the bike path. On the way back, even Broadway in Menands was something resembling lovely, and there were people out walking all over the place. Then I stopped to fix one mechanical, after which I was stopped by another – with a big bang, too. It appears that a little slippage of rim tape exposed a spoke socket, which allowed a little balloon in the tube, which popped and tore through the side of my tire like a gunshot. Now, North Albany is neither the best nor the worst place to have a colossal breakdown, but I was grateful that faithful spouse was available for sag wagon duty because it was still a long walk to the truck in bicycle shoes. So I pulled up a bench in the little park in front of Sacred Heart Church and soaked up the sun.

At some point in the adventure it occurred to me that I could actually have just hopped (well, you can’t exactly hop in carbon-soled shoes) onto a bus, as every CDTA bus now has a bike rack on the front.  I’m not sure where I would have taken the bus to, perhaps just closer to where I was parked, but I don’t carry change in the spandex, I actually don’t even know what bus fares are these days, and I’d already called for the camion balais by the time public transportation occurred to me. But, option!

On the upside, that means I get new tires!