Sunday found us spending about as much time repairing our bikes as riding them. Flat tires (Rod called it a FLAT Tire Festival) and broken chains appeared the rule rather than the exception. Seven of us showed at the East Coast Bagel parking lot with seemingly sturdy mechanical machines, ready to tackle the beautiful Los Robles Trail on a beautiful November day.  Davids R & N, Nelson, Rod, Dean, Matthew and I headed off on the pavement, soon starting the fireroad climb on dirt.  Before very long, Dean ran over a thorn and, in spite of having Stan's No-Tube system in his tires, his rear tire began to deflate and ejaculate white sealant.  Now this is not supposed to happen as the bottle below advertises.

 

Perhaps, as the bottle implies, it only eliminates "virtual" flats, not real flats.  And it says "No mess!"  Tell that to Dean's bike.

 

 

 

Dean pumped some more air in the tire, spun it as directed, and headed off.  But he had to make a couple of more stops to add air and, finally, as we began the climb up the Los Robles switchbacks, he gave up the fight, pulled out the special rim strip, and installed a new tube.  My guess is that Dean will work out the problem later as others have used Stan's successfully and Dean is a determined mechanic.

Meanwhile, others continued to climb the switchbacks....

 

 

 

 

Now this is about the same time that Dean was installing a tube in his tire further down the trail.  So while waiting for him and the others to arrive I scanned the area for other photo opportunities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we all arrived at the top of the Los Robles Trail.  But it was here that we had our second bike with a problem....DavidN had a flat tire.

 

 

Here we also saw the strong, muscular fellow who always rides helmetless with his young helmeted son perched on the top tube of his bike.  Matthew generously shared "our" apples with him and his son as well as with us old guys.  Plus a banana!  As alway, thanks, Matthew!  Freshly fueled we pedaled off.  But not for long.  Quickly David's tire deflated again and we discovered another hole that was missed during the first repair.  So Rod and I stopped and assisted David with a new tube.  The others went ahead to The Bench.  When we finally caught up with them, Nelson was just finishing with the repair of a broken chain on his bike.  So before we headed down the Rosewood Trail we swore a pact that there would be no more breakdowns.  We were successful as we made it back to the parking lot with no more damage done except that to our appetites.  Although Dean and Nelson had to head for home, the remaining 5 of us enjoyed a fine lunch sprinkled with even finer chat at The Sea Casa.

 

Have a great week.