Thanks Georges.

Today was an interesting commute. I woke up, got out the door early, got to the closer of the two park and rides early and got out to get the bike ready. Brrr, Who turned winter back on? Hooked on my armwarmers, pulled on the legwarmers and the windvest. Pumped up my tires and I was off. It was a sunny morning, I was off early, I soaked in the ambience of Scottsdale as I warmed up and turned onto Indian School road. I felt confident, I shifted down and stood up to get up to speed after the corner.....BAM. There was no hiss, there was no sound of air rushing out of the tire. Just BAM and I'm on the rim. I knew the tube was shot. you don't have that massive of a blowout and have a hole small enough to patch. I had about a 1/2 inch hole in my tube by the time I got the wheel off. I looked at the tire but couldn't see any noticeable holes so I put a new tube in and started pumping, then I saw it. There was a slit in the sidewall almost an inch long. My tire is toast. I was not too far from the car but I decided to not say die. It was time for George. I don't usually carry cash around but today I was lucky. Due to the size of the tear I didn't think 1 George was going to do it so I took out his other brother George and folded them up so they made a sizeable tire boot. Around now a fireman came out of the fire station I was in front of and asked me if I needed help. I told him I was good. Me and my friend George and his other brother George had it taken care of hopefully. I pumped it up to around 80-90 psi. My good old buddy George was smilling at me through the hole but he was holding.

Back on the bike, it's a sunny morning, I still will make it on time. I am working semi hard. Around Camelback mountain I go. I get up to the light I turn left at and have to wait for a few cars to pass so I can get into the turn lane. I trackstand, then I have a break (ha ha, I suppose that's a double entendre), I push down on the pedal and suddenly I am in the middle of the lane spinning my feet at 130 rpm with no resistance at all and I stall right in the middle of the two lanes on my side of the road. I hurriedly do the shuffle of shame getting my bike into the turn lane and then another shuffle of shame to get over to the sidewalk once the light is green.

I spent the next 15 minutes looking for my chain back where I felt it come loose and couldn't find it for the life of me. I found a pair of scratched up sunglasses that I'm going to give my son so he stops stealing mine, but no chain. At long last I looked back over to where I had finished my walk of shame and there it was. It had hung onto my frame somehow until I got off the road. It had snapped about 2 links back from the quicklink which had come undone in the process but the pieces were there so I'd just have to go with the shorter chain and not shift into the big chainring until I replaced the chain. I had a chain tool but fortunately I didn't need it. I now was officially behind schedule and after a nice ride down the canal I got to the fitness center to clean up and was in my desk 17 minutes late. Not too bad considering a double mechanical I think. Tonight I'll hit the bike shop a mile down the road on my way home. I hope they have 28c tires and a 9 speed chain.