The Fat Guy In The Back
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Sioux Falls, SD
Posts: 2,532
Bikes: '81 Panasonic Sport, '02 Giant Boulder SE, '08 Felt S32, '10 Diamondback Insight RS, '10 Windsor Clockwork, '15 Kestrel Evoke 3.0, '19 Salsa Mukluk
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1563:
It was 0°F when I left the house. Does that mean there was no temperature?
The wind was blowing lightly, but enough to drop the wind chill to -14°F. Today is supposed to be the warmest day we have this week. It's supposed to top out at 13°F this afternoon, then temps are supposed to plummet and we won't see above zero air temperatures (including highs) for about a week. Brrrr.
I took the fat bike as I wasn't sure how well plowed the MUP was after Friday's snow. Turns out it was clear enough that I probably could have ridden the mountain bike with studs.
The fat bike is always slow, but today it seemed unusually slow. At first I wrote it off to the cold temps. Then I decided that yesterday's binge eating was probably the cause. I was huffing and puffing and barely going 6 mph. And it kept getting slower the more I rode. About three miles into the journey I looked down and figured out my rear tire was flat. Well, that would explain it.
I managed to ride on the tire for another mile until I started to feel the rim hit when I went over big ice ruts. At that point I decided it was time to get off and push. Walked the bike the remaining 1/2 mile to the client's office. It wound up taking me an hour to make it the 4.5 miles to work.
When I bought the fat bike a little more than three years ago, I converted the tires to tubeless. One of the reasons was the supposed flat-resistance that going tubeless offers. I'm not sure I've bought into that, as I've had more flats on my fat bike than any other bike I've owned. I just topped off the tires with a fresh batch of sealant a few weeks ago hoping to prevent this very situation.
I have a frame pump on almost all of my bikes, but not this one (because the tubeless tires were supposed to be so much better at not going flat.) I put a call to my wife asking if she can drop off a bike pump on her way to work. The tire doesn't seem to be leaking super fast, so hopefully if I pump up the tire it will hold long enough to get me home without going completely flat again.
Last edited by Tundra_Man; 12-19-22 at 09:11 AM.