Road or MTB

There was choice on Saturday, road or MTB, not too sure which turned out to be the better.....

On the road, it was a chilly day you may recall, rain threatening all the time, Mr Reid texts Young Schleck (Leitch) at 7.55 saying "see you in 10.." he arrives and they leave at 8.15.


Now pre ride: Young Schleck has a rear tyre that had gone soft following some use on the turbo last week. He could find no problems with it so filled it with air and used it last weekend. It stayed inflated the whole time with no issues so he thought no more of it. Before Saturday he thought, it's quite hard but ill stick a drop of air into it... 10mins in: Having cycled no distance at all but all uphill his legs were a bit tired, this HAD to be the tyre. An inspection revealed that inflating it further had resulted in it going soft again. A change was required... Inner #1 - having checked the tyre and put in the spare inner he began to inflate it using Stuarts lovely pump. It appears to take some force to pump with it and unfortunately too much force was applied and the valve snapped in half, too many press ups this week!

This was later described at "Thugery" by his tall and gentle friend. Inner #2 - A bit more care and this one inflated and sealed beautifully. They could resume their 4 hour ride (scheduled for 8am depart) at 9am. It appears that old tyres and use on turbo do not blend well and with every revolution he felt a thud. Nope Gordon wasn't around hitting Schleck for being so daft, so following a brief inspection it transpired that his tyre was not round, annoying but they continued on... 1hr 5mins - While on a long gentle descent on a new road young Schleck thinks to himself "Ah, this is a lovely piece of...." Pop!

Inner #2 had put in a good shift but its time had come. Inner #3 - Further inspection of the tyre gave no clues as to the leakage so they popped in a new inner and Schleck began the inflation process. He had it nice and hard and went to remove the pump. Unfortunately the valve top came off with the pump and another inner bit the dust... At this point they were glad Gordon was out of the country!

Inner #4 - The process was repeated but Schleck was banned from going anywhere near the pump having seen 2 valves to their untimely end already. Schleck stood back to watch the master craftsman at work with his own tool, Stuart gently caressed the air into the tyre, with love and finesse. Finding it amusing Schleck said "Wouldn't it be funny if..." "Funny is not what it would be" Stuart interrupted. The moment came, the tyre adequately pumped until... off came the valve. Stuart managed to get his finger over the terminally wounded valve in a hope he could somehow block it until we got home.

The original inner tube - No typo, the only inner that was not fully punctured or valveless was the original Schleck went out with. They got it inflated, got the valve on and quickly embarked on a return journey home. He was instructed to remain out the saddle??? No doubt just to hurt him for his stupidity. Having travelled about 800m they had their first check, all good, best keep going. Another check about 15mins later and still nice and hard. They managed to get home with the tyre still inflated and Schleck has 2 shiny new tyres. Fingers crossed they aren't too shiny or he shall be falling off!! (writer Y Schleck).

As for the MTB, well that was fun and more photos and stories later.