Failure

I feel defeated.  Maybe frustrated is a better word, however, defeated keeps coming to mind.  Part of it was due to an unexpected flat the other part is due to my failure to prepare.  This resulted in me having to call home for a ride.  I failed to ride 20 miles on the first really nice day of the year.

Yesterday, I was riding home from work and I noticed that my rear tire was feeling a little squirrelly.  I am trying to get as many miles in before a century this weekend so I was taking the long way home.  I don't know what caused it to leak in the first place, no punctures or debri stickng out of it.   I put this together a month or so ago and it is been holding air, so I am not sure what caused it to start leaking air.  I guess it resulted in the seal breaking along the bead.

I stopped by a gas station and was happy that I put a presta to schrader adapter in my bag.  I dropped a quarter in the slot (no free air these days) and added a bunch of air but found that the bead was not sealing.  I found myself on the extreme opposite side of town examining my wonderful tubeless tire watching sealant bubble around the rim.  I sat for a few and watched sealant bubble in numerous spots on the tire/rim.  I contemplated just breaking the bead, putting in a tube and riding home.  I checked my stuff and realized that I didn't have a tube so I figured I would tough it out.  I headed back to the bike path and checked it again, I was loosing air.

So I called home, sat in the shade and waited for a ride.  I played with it last night, got up this morning and there is still little bubbles.  There is only a finite amount of time in life. Subtract sick time and work (in this case I can count years that I have lived behind wire and concrete....not prison) the amount of time that a person can get out an enjoy life is pretty limited.  I like to maximize my free time and enjoy it as much as possible.  While the eternal optimist may find something great about sitting on the road by a casino......I could not.

Even today I am really frustrated.  I spent a lot of time and effort getting those tires to seal, so I could sit next to a casino and watch bus loads of old people arrive so they can blow their social security checks.  I will always carry a tube from now on and I will probably just revert back to the good old inner tube for that wheel.  Man...I feel defeated.