Miss Mia Sopaipilla and I have been enjoying a respite from wall-to-wall politics, with the Donks seemingly in a joyful state of mind along the old campaign trail and the press, or what remains of it, finally noticing in the absence of Joe Biden that it’s the other candidate who is a psycho, serial fabulist, and senile old fool, with one foot in the grave and the other in the nuthouse.
The shit monsoon will resume eventually, of course, once the Cult remembers where it left its copy of the Necronomicon (Classic Comics edition, with a foreword by Lee Atwater):
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Jesus Hitler Mar-a-Lago wgah’nagl fhtagn!”
In the meantime, the cycling has been excellent, albeit a bit toasty with the occasional deluge and explosive decompression to keep us on our toes.
I had a back-tire blowout at speed yesterday — hit a scattering of roadside debris that was deeper and chunkier than it looked, with heavy traffic in the lane and thus no way to dodge it. In an instant I was riding the rim and thought I might take a tumble, but managed to wobble to a stop without bloodshed.
It has been a month of flats, on both Steelman Eurocrosses, the Nobilette, and finally the DBR Prevail TT. That last was the worst, because it rolls on 26mm rubber, which is as fat as the rear triangle can handle. Not much in the way of a rim to ride, is what. I’m lucky it wasn’t the front that went boom or I’d have done likewise immediately afterward.
Could be worse, though. A couple folks got swept down the arroyos during Friday’s flash flood, and one of them didn’t land on his feet.
And now, from our Good News Department: The Ethan Allen dealer at Montgomery and Tramway has been replaced by (wait for it …) a Goodwill store, right behind the Filiberto’s without a sign. Economic development, Duck! City style.
Mad Blog Media 
Miss Mia is smart to find a place of refuge until the shit storm subsides. I plan to do likewise. And, as you say mi amigo, having a front wheel tire blow out, come off the rim, and then wash out from under you is a true shit storm. It happened to Sandy when she was riding her Terry Classic touring bike at the end of a longer ride.
I think it was a Panaracer Pasela tire on the small front wheel. I watched her go down, and it looked real bad, but she got some road rash on one knee, a small cut in the chin, and a cracked helmet. The wheel tacoed, so we walked the remaining 1/4 mile to the house. I think she soon sold that Terry and started riding a Trek 520 with straight bars and Conti Gatorskin tires.
Glad it was a rear blowout. Last sphincter-tightening blowout I had was riding down Hyde Park Road on a curve. The front rim tape was not quite right and during the downhill, the tube found a spoke hole and that was that. Fortunately, I was also able to bring it to a stop without going over the bars or what have you.
Question to the cognizante: Anyone recommend a decent but inexpensive 48-32 crankset? I’m not getting any younger and Hyde Park seems to get steeper by the year. I did it yesterday in my CAAD-5, which is set up with a mishmash of gear train (50-34 crankset, 12-32 or 11-34 9 spd cassette, 9 speed Dura Ace shifters, old XTR rear derailleur–somehow it still all works). Thinking of going a little lower but not sure my compact derailleur will handle a 46-30.
Hm. I can’t think of anyone selling that particular combo. I do love my 46/30T IRD Defiant. I have that model on two bikes: one with a Deore rear derailleur, IRD Sub-C front, and 7-speed Shimano 13-34T cassette; the other with Sun XCD derailleurs front and rear, 9-speed SRAM 11-34T cassette. Rivendell Silver friction shifters, of course, which makes everything simpler.
Soma Fabrications has a variety of subcompact cranks, including a house-brand version of that 46/30T crank that’s more affordable, but they seem to be low on stock at the moment. Rivendell has some too.
Looks like Praxis and Microshift do a couple models with that tooth count. Check out the road doubles at Tree Fort Bikes.
Made a comment, but it didn’t show. Anywho, years ago Sandy had a front blowout in a turn, tire came off the rim, and then she high sided. Looked ugly in the rear view mirror, but lucklily no serious harm except tacoed front wheel on her Terry Classic touring bike. It was soon traded for a Trek 520 shod with Conti Gatorskins. No more Panaracer Paselas for her.
Looks like a few of you guys have been getting routed to the spam folder for reasons I cannot fathom. I’ve noticed some other, subtle miscues on the backend lately. WordPress seems to be shitting the bed again.
Those front-tire blowouts … man, it takes more skill than I have to recover from one of those in a corner. And I was just thinking about going out for a ride, too. Maybe I’ll just stay inside and root around in the goddamn spam folder instead, see who else has gone walkabout when I wasn’t looking.
Nah, go for a ride! Tight beads are good beads. Pat
I went for a run instead. Maybe not the smartest move, considering how many crashes I’ve had while running. I kept the rubber side down this time.
Might have to wait till next month for the crank. Just had the shop do the 60 k service on the Subaru. Yikes!
O joy. I have a visit to the Subie shop this week. Hope I don’t have to sell any bikes to make the nut.
The 60k is one of the Big Ones. All the fluids, plugs (which apparently are really fun to change on my car), filters, etc. Fortunately this only hit us after owning the car for 8 years, so the hurt is painful but rare.