Story of an Amateur Biker...and Lesson Learnt?

Being a hot-headed 23 year old, I recently bought a bike home after a round of grocery run. I spent a little time reading over the biking manual, rode my bike that weekend for the first time and completed roughly about two third of the trail nearby. And the reason why I mentioned two-third instead of the whole trail, was because I didn't get to finish the whole thing up before the poor bike fell apart nearly half way through.

And before that incident happened, I would consider myself an average biker, happy and proud, and probably have just enough knowledge like the most of you on how to ride a bike properly. What I didn't see coming, however, was how to carry punctured wheels and roughly 17, 18 pounds worth of metal and materials out that same two-third of a trail around sunset.

As I approached the 7th kilometre along the trail, before anyone could enter the forest, there came a gradual squeaky sound as I paddled along the pebbles that were lying flat on the ground. Just like any normal human beings, I naturally turned and gazed down to the back wheel only to find one full on, flatten back tire. And with no surprises, I also saw the rubber tube from inside of the tyre to have completed fallen out, still chained to the broken half of my shiny new bike.

Alright, I was about 7 kilometres into this quiet, long, pebbled trail - At that point, not only could you see pebbles, rocks and sand, but from not far you could also see a couple giant rain clouds secretly gathered around. It did not look great, at all. And on top of that, how the hell was I going to carry a giant piece of broken metal, in a bright neon tank top, in chances of shower for 7 kilometres?

Was that anything within my prediction?

No.

Did I have one single contingency plan?

Oh, absolutely not.

Rachel, the amateur biker, had always been a woman of luck, but obviously luck was not on her side at this point of the story so far. Not until she met two very kind hearted strangers who happened to have a full set of bike repairing tools, and were willing to spend about two hours of their time to help a not so lucky soul fix a broken tyre. (Yea, I told you all she has been a woman of luck.)

Now because I had absolutely been unprepared, and learnt a great lesson from being a hot headed 23 year old, I would at least want to pass along and share with you all, my fellow friends, some degree of knowledge I had gained from Andrey and Natalia about the beauty of temporary bike replacement, and how not to panic when you were faced in a similar situation.

4:05 PM.

At that point in time, I must either have troubled and frustration written all over my face, or have troubled and frustration written all over the 17 pounded broken bike when the couple approached from a far distance.

The wheel repairing process took about a little less than two hours; with a total of 3 fail attempts, a whole lot of really wonderful conversations, along with some great jokes while I was told the first step to repairing was to run the wheels in along the river bed (if you were outdoor) to check for small punctured holes. Why river beds? Because a lot of the times these holes were so small that it would not be visible to any pair of human eyes, and you can locate where the holes were at when you squeezed the tyre gently until air bubbles surfaced.

4:40 PM.

"You have absolutely nothing to worry about. We got a little more than 48 hours before Monday comes by - Got plenty of time to fix your bike!" Yes Andrey, I absolutely agreed; I also would not see any other strangers who would be willing to help me squeeze air bubbles out of broken rubber tyres in cold running water for 48 hours.

Tip 1. "You don't carry a small wrench with you 24/7? Don't worry, neither do I."

If you are like me, not particularly savvy in part replacement or repairing, you probably should pick a new bike that comes with an adjustable handle. Your chances to take apart any flatten tyre(s) out for temporary fixes would be much higher than if you have one of these.

In our case, none of us were carrying a wrench to take apart the hubs that were attached to both tyres. So instead of spending 10 minutes running the whole tyre in cold running river water, we spent a little more than half an hour.

Tip 2. "Carry bottles of water with you not only to stay hydrated, but they will serve greater purpose in unexpected situation like this,"

A bottle of water or two will become extremely handy when you are trying to locate invisible holes on the rubber tube in the tyres. You can gently pour small amount of water while turning the tyre slowly in one direction.

While punctured holes are normally tiny and invisible, slow running water would make them visible with tiny air bubbles popping along the streams. In our case, we ran out of water along the bottles at that point in time so we had to carry the whole bike along with the tyres back and forth to the river. Same theory, but it would be requiring for a full team effort and a whole lot longer than using a bottle of water. You get the idea.

Tip 3. "Nope you are not going to blow into any tubes."

How. Unhygienic. Would. That. Be.... And so that is why it is such a brilliant idea to carry along a small portable tyre inflator while you plan on riding alongside pebbled trails for longer than 2 hours of time. This was what we ended up using after carrying out the whole bike back and forth alongside the river and after losing the location of the punctured invisible hole for many times. Make sure it is quiet enough for you to hear the the "sssss-" air leaking squeaks.

Tip 4. "Things are called miracle for a reason"

These things are called a miracle pack for some very obvious reason. Natalia said the bicycle first aid miracle pack comes in a variety of packaging, each costs anywhere between 3 to 4 CAD a pack in any dollar store.

In exact terms of how you would use lash glue for fake lashes, you put a thin layer of rubber glue onto small sticker pads, wait for a minute, and tightly press it onto the small invisible punctured hole while inflating the tyre. Be extremely patient because you might have to hold tight for a couple of minutes before the glue set completely. If the interior of your tyre were rugged like mine, you might want to stick another piece of small sticker pad inside the tyre right next to the rubber tube to avoid fraction and additional pressure. This would essentially help reduce unwanted collision on the rubber surfaces, and allow the tyre to stay inflated for as long as it can.

If you're an amateur biker like myself, I would challenge you to ask yourself these questions before taking a new bike on an adventure. Because even if you're a lucky woman (or man) like myself, we probably should not bet on the idea of having Andrey and Natalia appearing in the middle of nowhere, having all the right tools we need, and be willing to give 48 hours of their time to help fix a punctured tyre again.

1. Do you have the habit of bringing along a small wrench with you at all times?

2. How far are you traveling?

3. Are you strong enough to carry 17 pound worth of metal and rubber for a couple of hours?

4. How's the weather for the day looking like?

5. Are there reception along the trails?

Here's how you get to fix a broken tyre on professional terms: http://www.madegood.org/bikes/repair/mount-a-kevlar-bead-folding-tyre-2/

Andrey threw in a piece of his dad joke after the third fail attempt to stick on the miracle pads, "It obviously has been more than an hour. Each time we told you it's probably fixed and you jumped on, you ended up falling miserably after paddling for 5 seconds. I bet you think we have no idea what we are trying to do." He shrugged, "Cause we actually don't have one clue what we are doing."

Don't worry Andrey, I have negative clues what I was up to either.

So for the 4th time I jumped on the bike, thinking once again I would fall miserably, I ended up going a little further, and farther, and further, until I turned back and saw both Andrey and Natalia waving back and told me not to look back nor should I be stopping. "Sail that bike of yours away before the rain clouds hit you Rachel!" I still remembered Natalia yelled it out from far, and those smiles they were wearing on both faces after they saw me took off with the bike.

I yelled back a huge thank you to those two, and to my surprises, the tyres were doing fine for the remaining hour as I biked home as quickly as possible.

Do you believe in good karma and that everything happens for a reason along this universe?

Because surly I do!