TANKs BLOG : random weekend blog

So i used to ride my bike to/from the train station, it's about 1.5 miles each way, so it's a good way to work some exercise into my day. They started charging $1/day to park at the train station so my weekly commute cost went up 5 bucks plus it costs me 5/week in gas approximately driving.

Anyway i had to finally stop riding my bike. The amount of road debris is insane, 1/2 inch long thorns, glass, i pulled some kind of huge staple out of my tire last time. The repair costs for the tires outweighs the cost of driving and paying for parking if you can believe that. I've tired Slime tubes and finally got fed up of those and decided to give those liners a try. The guy said oh ya they're tough... they're a bitch to even cut. So i go with that, $33 to outfit both tires with those. I got ONE day of riding out of them, rear tire was flat the next morning. What the fuck right? 33 bucks is like 3 weeks worth of driving/paying for parking.

I just had to call it quits and have had to stop riding the bike, it's just too damn expensive. I know what you're saying, stay on the road stupid. Well... despite the fact that I own a mountain bike, it's never been in the dirt it's a road bike. I only ride on the roads. The odd time i'm stupid and do actually get off the sidewalk or something and hit the dirt, guranteed flat.

I've been missing riding so i decided to do some searching on the net today. They have fucking airless mountain bike tires ! NO FLATS .... EVER! The tire is 2/3 solid and 1/3 air but the air is compartmentalized into bubbles like bubblewrap i guess. So if you do happen to get a puncture, the tire stays fully operational.

The down side is it's $92 including shipping for two tires and the install tool. They just install over your current rims. So i'm thinking thats a significant amount of money but i'm also thinking in 9 weeks, they've paid for themselves just factoring in gas and parking fees. Less if i factor in a flat tire to fix every 3 weeks and the fact that soon i'm going to need to get new tires anyway because the treads are still good but probably by the end of this season i'll need new ones. If i factor all that it, it doesn't seem like such a bad deal.... i just don't know though. I'll need to ponder some more ..... but I saw a picture from a california gas station at 4.99/gallon for regular today on the internet ! That may be enough of a factor. Plus i'm thinking about selling my truck, we have 3 vehicles now anyway although two of them are old ratty 150k + mile vehicles but good enough for running around town.

Anyway if any of you are sick and tired of f'n flat tires on your bikes.... here's where you can go to eliminate that problem

http://www.airfreetires.com/shopping/p-65-26-x-20-teton-all-terrain-559.aspx