My first puncture!

After eating breakfast I was on the road again by around 1000. The forecast told me it would rain a bit during the day, which it also started doing. I did not really mind it as it was going pretty well even though it rained.
I stopped for lunch and had the luck to have almost to none rain during my lunch time. I made another strange “some sort of creamy thing with pears”-lunch, and they do taste good!

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A couple of hundred metres after lunch I was making a left turn. On this small road it started pouring down more than it had ever done during my trip so far. That was not the biggest problem: A short bit in on the road it appeaed to be a private road with a fence over the way, so I had to turn back. As I were not sure of which way to go, and the rain was pouring down, I decided to borrow the roof of a small restaurant by the way. While standing there a boy, 18 years old, with an umbrella came out and asked if I wanted to come inside, and you bet I liked to!
Apparently it was a place for weddings and as they did not have any planned weddings this day they had nothing to do, so he was relaly happy to treat me some tea and company.

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He was working there and were studying or had studied for some sort of hotel managment as I understood it. He was really nice company!
This was just part of the place, but it looked good:

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I then continued on another way. After some kilometres the bike appeared to go slower than usual, and it seemed like I had a small puncture. To not have to change it during the rain I just pumped some air into the tube and continued until I arrived at my first destination for the evening.
When I searched for couches, the first one who accepted would be looking at the game out in the city until 2000. The other one would go up really early in the morning but would like to treat me dinner if I had the time. Therefore I was going to Norma for dinner, a really nice girl who I am thinking of visiting more than a couple of hours when I start to go south again!
Later that evening I went to my other hosts place, Anna. It was really crazy on the roads as Holland had won the game; police everywhere trying to keep the traffic flowing while people were going round and round in the roundabouts.

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The first thing I had to do was fix my puncture. I tried to find the hole but when the clock is nine in the evening you don’t really have the patience. It ended with me changing the tube, and so far so good.

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She had another couchsurfer there and it was really nice to listen to them when he played the guitar and she sang! We had a nice time and later in the evening we looked at a movie, “The Terminal”. It was a really good day even though the rain was massive sometimes!

2 thoughts on “My first puncture!

  1. Hello Jackiie
    Great fun to see your project up and running.
    Punctures come when you least wish for them. Fixing them without taking the wheel off is a smooth way to go, why not on the roadside directly when you get them.
    I pump up the the tire really hard, then try to listen for the puncture, if that doesnt work I roll the tire very slowly just in front of my lips (yes!) to sense where the air is coming out. Some saliva may confirm, but most often you see the guilty metal or glass fragment sitting just there. Dont forget to take it out or you will soon have another puncture after the repair.
    Only very slow punctures lasting 1-2 days per filling or more, need water bath or soapy water spray to be confirmed, I more often dip the wheel still sitting on the bike in a water beacon to find the location.
    Here is a guy who does it roughly the same way
    http://theprudentcyclist.com/2012/03/fixing-a-flat-without-removing-the-tire/
    Hope you never have use for this info!
    Greetings from Västerås
    /kai

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