Mike's Bike Blog

On Sunday's ride I caught up with the Southwest Cycle Sport gang and in honor of my attendance Peter announced we'd go North. He'd astutely observed that whenever I join the group we do the same route. This time we'd head North to 620 and to the Spa in Steiner Ranch [ROUTE]. We rolled out 6 strong, but instantly lost 1 as Greg was not feeling up to the hills and he headed South on Bee Cave Road. This had me a little apprehensive as I've never ridden in Steiner Ranch and my legs were still seathing from Saturdays 3 Sister VO2 attack. I've seen the road from a distance, I'd heard it was a good climb but didn't know what to expect. When we turned right into Steiner Ranch from 620 we soon lost 2 more that left Peter, Joe and me. The ride down is fun, my top speed was 45.73mph. The road starts out as a 4 lane at the entrance and gets narrower and narrower the closer to the river. At the river we didn't stop and site see, but proceeded to keep our momentum up and head back up.

It's aproximately 6.58 miles back to 620 with 869 ft of climbing. We didn't stay on Quinlan Park Road but turned right on Steiner Ranch Blvd and climbed that up to 620. As we were heading up Steiner Ranch Blvd. Peter said it wasn't as bad as the 3 Sisters. Luckily it wasn't but I was waiting for it to pitch up at some point or offer up some type of fight. As it turns out it's just a long climb, 2 miles to be exact. I kept waiting for the knockout punch but it never arrived.

On 620 we made our way down to the gas station at the corner of Bullick Hollow and 620. As we were eating our bars and gels there was a violent explosion and the release of air from my front tire. I had a blow out while my bike was leaning against the ice machine! I replaced the tube and proceeded to air it up and as I was about to take off the CO2 the new tube exploded as well. Upon further investigation I had a side wall puncture!

Joe gave me a new tube and Peter gave me his used gel packet to fashion a boot out of. I folder the packet in 2 length wise and covered the puncture hole. I then seeded the tube in and we put air in, not the fully recommended PSI but about 80-90 PSI. The tube made it back to the shop and I was able to finish the ride.

When you're in a pinch you can use discarded gel packets to boot your tires. If Peter wouldn't have had the packet it would have been a dollar bill.