So there this At Home Dad (me) was, at the elementary school dropping my son off at Kindergarten after riding our bikes to school as we always do. I was standing near the flagpole which I lock his bike to school which is near the closest in bike rack that is always full by the time we get there; it is not like we need to lock his bike up as most of the other bikes are just sitting there unlocked with helmets hanging, I am just teaching him responsibility and how to care for things he truly cherishes.

Anyway, I was standing there checking the compression on my front shocks and thinking what a great day for a ride and where to go on my ride seeing how I just broke my RD mountain bike out for the snow season and let my K2 Dad cruiser bike have the winter off and I heard it, pssssst. Strange I thought, that sounds just like air escaping I thought as I looked around for the culprit thinking somebody is going to be bummed after school when they find a flat tire and then I smelled it!

You know the rubber like smell air has after it has spent time inside an inner tube? My shocks just got squishier when I noticed the my front tire was squishy; only it did not take me till after school to be bummed as I just got bummed in the here and now, that flat was mine! I now had to walk and push my bike home, all .62 miles, oh well it was a beautiful morning for a walk and I was going to do a ride anyway so off I went. I had a few minutes to plan my strategy for the day and how to get to Target to get not 1 but two inner tubes, yes I will pack a spare from now on while thinking I was oh so luckily to be within .75 miles of home when the dreaded pssssst happened and I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened.

I log near a thousand miles most summers and never had a pssssst till last summer when my rear tire decided rebel on the way home from the pool a ¼ mile from the house!

I learned my lesson this time as I won’t be so lucky next time it happens, 2 summers, 2 flast and both were within .75 miles of home!