Monterey ride and maintenance report

[creekster]

This weekend my wife had an event in the Monterey area in which the entire family was involved so we decided to make it a father’s day weekend, stay overnight and then go for a ride on 17 mile drive on the Monterey peninsula, which has some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. My older two kids don’t like to ride too much, so they decided to wander off and do some other things. We brought the triple for my wife and I and our 8 year old. The triple is about 8 or 9 feet long when assembled, so I took it apart for transport (S&S frame couplers) and then pulled it out of the truck and started to put it back together when we were ready to ride. It did not go smoothly.

First, the cable splitters that the local shop had talked me into at the last tune-up were pieces of garbage and made it very difficult to put the cables on. Then I finally got them and the frame together and I decided I needed to put some more air in the tires. I was too rough with the stem on the rear tire (why is it always the rear?) and pulled the stem off of the tube causing it to flat. As an aside, the long stem presta valves seem to cause this to happen a lot more (I think there is a lot more leverage on the tube/valve joint when you push the valve stem). My advice is to avoid them on non-deep profile rims. No problem with the flat, as I always carry a spare tube. Put it on and pumped it up real fast. As I neared the 120 psi for which the tires are rated, the tube exploded inside the tire, leaving, as I found when I pulled it out, a hole about 3/8 of an inch in diameter directly across from the valve on the rim tape side of the tube. What the heck caused that? I couldn’t figure it out. Anyone have nay ideas?

In any event, this was too big to patch, so I asked a local where the nearest bike shop was and they sent me to a place only 2 blocks away. They had a limited selection, specializing mostly in rental of these 4 wheeled pedal cart things that go on the bike path in Monterey (if you have been there you have seen them) but they had some tubes so I bought three of them, to be safe. Walked back to the truck and changed the tire AGAIN, pumped it up, put it on the bike and then realized the rear brake was all bunged up as the cable had somehow come off the travel agent (device sometimes used on tandems and triples to increase the leverage on v-brakes) and was caught and was going to have to be taken off and re-installed. This is a pretty long job under the best of circumstance (at least for me) and very daunting when you are on the sidewalk next to your truck and only have a multi-tool and few other things in the truck. SO I start working on it and while I am digging around in the truck looking for some wire cutters, I hear a loud BANG. I look at the bike and the bead on the rear tire has ripped off causing the tube to bulge through and then explode. Wonderful. The tire was old but still looked to be in pretty good shape. Contis have a reputation for blowing sidewalls and beads among some riders but I have used them for many years and have never had that happen before. Always a first time, I guess, and better there than on the road with the whole family aboard.

Back to the bike shop; I borrow a few tools and buy a tire. Back to the truck where my wife and 8 year old are patiently but somewhat unhappily waiting (the other two kids are long gone since before I started having problems). New tube, new tire and continue working on rear brake. Tire works fine, but I can’t quite get the brake thing on my own. We all then walk with the bike to the shop where I decide I need a new brake cable anyway, which I buy and they help me install and adjust. Finally ready to roll, we are now 2.5 hours late.

We get on the bike path and after about 400 yards a woman riding in the other direct with a large dog on a leash is stopped by the dog who veers to the left across her front tire, making her stop immediately. Some guy behind her, rather than stop, veers to his left right into my path of travel. I hit the brakes (thank goodness we fixed them) and we barely stop in time. I give the guy an earful and he responds by looking at me with a stupified expression. Whatever.

We then continue and are behind some other guy riding with a large dog on the leash. The dog’s leash is one of those retractable leashes spooled out about 6 feet. He comes up on some pedestrians walking in his lane and he goes to the left and the dog goes to the right (which he incredibly did not notice) and the leash, pulled forward by the dog and the bike on each side, takes out these pedestrians, all of whom are about 60-65 years old and who tumble like bowling pins all over the path in front of us, although we did again manage to stop in time, partly because I saw this accident develop in what seemed like slow motion and so anticipated it. Sometimes I hate mixed-use paths and at that point we just took our chances on the road, where it seemed much safer.

After a couple more miles we got on 17 mile drive proper and it was spectacular. If you are ever in Monterey, check out this ride, as it is beautiful. If you are without bike, you can rent a decent road bike at Bay Bikes (who was very helpful to me). They rent Kona frames with CF forks. Moreoever, it costs 9 bucks a car to get in, but bikes get in free, which will partially offset the cost of a bike rental. A great ride. Check it out.