Caught in the rain

Whent out for a training ride yesterday and it started to drizzle, so I thought no problem, a little water wont harm me. It gradually got harder to the point where I decided to head back home.

500 m from home, soaking wet, struggling to see with all the rain I hit a pothole. Damn I think. and am about to do another pedal stroke when I feel the back wheel is flat. start braking a I hear shhh.......shhhh.......shhh coming from the front wheel. Both tubes gone on one pothole.

 

Know the feeling (not the rain!). Went out for a cycle July/August last year (just before 94.7) on a well travelled but quite road. Going down a short one, picking up speed, hearing a car (it was a bus), going as far left as possible and then, out of the black tarmac, the wonderfull color of BROWN MUD! Now with a bus passing you on that road there is NO space to move and at 55km/h stopping is out of the question, so what could I do. Needless to say, 200m after the posthole a beautifull SSHHHHHH . Both front and back went. And there I stood waiting till my wife and father-in-law came to pick me up (the wife was the hell in because it was a Sunday morning at about 06:30)

 

swartkoppies ??? on the way to the Lido ??


I have to spare tubes in my saddle bag, but was not about to do repairs in the rain.

 

No, fortunately not there. The day your talking about (last week) I was on the indoor trainer . The weekend I'm talking about was in Vanderbijlpark, I was on my way to Potchefstroom. It happened near the Barrage offramp (near Ertjies Berg)

 

Well, personally I look forward to rain. In fact, I wake up every morning hoping for rain. Here's why:

Up until last month, this region had not had any decent rain for two complete years. I spent much of 2002 having to put up with bushfire smoke and/or dust storms on rides (either that, or not ride at all). At one point I had to either cancel or shorten six consecutive weekend rides because of bushfires. It got so bad that even when there were'nt any bushfires around, my choice of rides was limited because of the scarcity of water (I found the only reliable source was to buy bottled water, an expensive option for someone who often drinks > 10 litres/day).

After that, I'd even welcome hail! I am not joking. At least we finally got some rain last month, and it was absolutely beautiful! More please!

 

Here in the united states in the majority of states the road crews have to keep the poholes to less than 1 inch thickness. However this is rarely done and often overlooked for months or until somebody calls.
I once got PG&E in California to pay for my tire cause they managed to rip through my sidewall with one of their road fixes and the height of the pothole exceeded the state mandated 1 inch thickness and they knew it.
So i got a tire out of it.