A Small Investment Now Can Save You From a Big Walk Later

My wife and I recently decided to ride a route in St. Paul that we hadn't done before.  We wanted to see some other areas of the city that we normally don't ride.  We decided to follow the 30 mile Grand Round route of the St. Paul Classic Bike Tour.  We started out on our ride from Summit Ave. and proceeded to follow the route.  Things were going great until we made it to Lake Como where my wife got a flat tire.  We were unprepared to make an on-the-fly fix of the problem.

Needless to say, her ride was over for the day.  I had to ride another eight miles leaving her behind to get our vehicle and return to pick up her and her bike.  If she was riding solo it would have been a very long walk back to her car.  Had we only been prepared, we could have avoided this problem and continued our ride with just a brief pit stop.

One of our first stops on the way home was to Penn Cycle to get the flat tube replaced and to purchase the necessary gear to make sure this doesn't happen again.   For about $45 we picked up a spare tube, a set of tire levers and a Proflat Elite CO2 Tire Inflator.  

These items are small enough to take with you on every ride so you are prepared for the unexpected.  They easily fit into a seat, frame or trunk bag and will keep you from having to make that long walk back if you do experience a flat.  You can fix that flat in just a few minutes and be back on your bike to enjoy the rest of your ride.  It's a small investment to prevent a major inconvenience.

If you have never had to change a flat before, watch the short video below for a quick tutorial.