On cycling forums, the word puncture is treated like a swear word. Often spelt with asterisks it's something every cyclist dreads and it's often referred to as the p******* fairy. Superstitiously, it's thought that mentioning it can hasten it's arrival.
Well S and I hadn't mentioned the fairy this morning but she still got a visit. As she's riding home alone tonight I was following from a distance and allowing her free rein. She was doing marvellously, even overtaking a bus and dealing a with a nasty driver by taking the moral high ground and pulling over.
Then, she signalled left, when our route was clearly straight on. She pulled onto the pavement and it was clear something was wrong, or rather, flat.
The back tire was pancake-like and I pulled out the tools to repair it. It was a split with a tiny hole so we patched it up and I let her know that, in my opinion, it looked like a fault with the tube and to tell the bike shop. We then carried on and arrived at work on time but with no shower time so, technically, a bit late.
It was only disappointing because S had being flying along at speed and had been textbook in her looking, signalling and maneuvering. Now her seat's wobbly as well so that'll be something to look at at lunchtime.
What I was most impressed by was her completely unflapping response to the fairy. She signalled and got off the road and, once the hole was repaired, confidently pedalled off to complete the journey. Lovely.
*Update: Thank you mystery man at work with a magical multitool. Having seen me pondering the seat problem he agreed with me that the main bolt was loose and had it tightened in a matter of moments. Well done that man.
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