Back in the Flats in Arizona

I was in the bike shop in Mesa, AZ,, some time ago I might add, and talking to the boy wonder bike mechanic about the numerous flats I have been getting and what I might do about them. "There's 49 other states," he says. Go figure.

I have been carrying these two Kenda™ tires -- around and across several states in fact -- because I know at some point I am going to want some larger tires with a bit of tread on them. For the rainy season that I know is coming, that thing Californians call Winter, but the rest of you dispute. It's coming Thursday, or so, I hear. Fire up the barbeque.

I have been running some sort of hi-ball desert tires -- bullet resistant, super slickery, slicky, slick slicks, in the tightest weave, highest pressure, and smallest small. Nice. The ground out here is a lot harder than it was in Arizona, There's a big lot of infrustructure sticking right up into the surface of the street in the form of cable car tracks, street car rails, Train tracks, manhole covers, curbs, speed bumbs, sewer grates, taxi cabs and what not -- not to mention an abundance of cobbles, potholes, recycling, and the ocasional miguided pigeon other stuff. It can be downright punishing at times.

So I pulled out the 700Cx38 Kendas with tread, to replace the 700Cx23 slicks. I start an age old ritual -- for me -- warm the tire slowly with my fingers rubbing the inside of the tire surface, caressing it, looking for puncturers, prickly pricks, nails, screws, riff-raff, or just thorns. Picking and prying the thorns, glass, iron filings, away from the precious air. Warming it and cleaning it, becoming friends with it, saving it from future damage. easing the rubber pieces together, easing them on to the rim, pushing the tire into place with my hands alone, gently stretching, straightening, and forcing the tire over the rim to fill with air. With just 75 PSI of the air (that's going to slow me down to a banana slug's pace).

I pulled about 50 thorns out of the first tire. There's fifty other states. I have to wonder, since they were so easy to see (they are beige), and that I could pick them out of the tire with my fingers, why one of these genious bike shop guys in Arizona, wouldn't have just simply said, "You're getting all these flats because your tires are full of thorns. Anyone who lives in Arizona and rides a bike, knows that you have to pull all these thorns out." You get them when the wind first blows in the summer.

There are two thorns in this picture. They are big enough to grab and remove with your fingers. They look like golf balls.

And here's a picture of one of them completely intact.

WTF? I ask. I am sure one of us should have noticed these in the tires.

And guess what? I am in one of those other states. Wish me luck tomorrow.