Every punctured inner tube has a story. A history. A time and a place. An angry dispatcher on the phone, a late court filing, a late arrival to work, a long walk home in the rain. The broken valves, the valve stems sheared off, the perforated rim strips, the naked spoke holes, the $5 bill tire boots, pinch flats, snake bites, gun shot blowouts, slow slow leaks too lazy to fix, roofing nails, broken glass, upholstery tacks, thorns, staples, bailing wire, thread bare tire bubbles and classic tuffy tire liner lacerations.
The dream is always the same… …I’m riding to work on Lakeview Boulevard in the dark fog of 6 am and hearing, feeling, tasting the undulating hissing of a broken 40 bottle puncture. I raise my right hand to signal the team car but the team car never seems to arrive.
The 13 valves in the collection pictured here, represent a small portion of my personal flat tire history. All of them 700c presta tubes. Some were SBS just-over-whole-sale company subsidized tubes. Some were full price Elliot-Bay-Bike-Shop-are-you-fucking-kidding-me $8.50 long valves. Some were borrowed. Some were pay backs. I know one of them made it across Iowa twice (RAGBRAI 2007 & 2008) with out a puncture, a Torelli tube made in France, it was a valve core failure that finally killed it. Most of them were ridden on the streets of Seattle for many many miles or maybe just a few, before they were decommissioned. Some were patched and returned to active duty immediately. None of them were from Jonny Sundt
Superstition and luck continue to play their parts. I don’t believe you can boy-scout your way out of each and every contingency.
They say they come in threes.
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