Two summers ago JJ and I went for a mountain bike ride up the Old Flowers jeep road. The highlight of this ride was that on the way down we were flying along when all of a sudden J’s tire rear blew out with a vengeance. Upon inspection we found a full utility razor blade lodged in his rear tire. Somehow a razor blade was on the trail, probably falling off some jeep or truck, and J happened to ride over it just so that it sliced the tire wide open.
Fortunately at the time we were close to the bottom, made a crude repair with a new tube and my handy athletic tape to patch the sidewall… good enough to get back to the car.
We laughed about the event saying “Man, that’ll never happen again!” What are the odds of picking up a razor blade!?!
Yesterday was bike to work day in Fort Collins. Yes, I biked to work…. took the road bike for speed (I’m always late). On my way home, I was heading west on Drake between Timberline and Lemay. I was heads down and cruising at a good ~20mph pace. I caught the glimpse of two razor blades for a split second before POW, CLANK, Pah-CHING … and I came quickly to a stop. Yup, I rode over a razor blade, it lodge in my back tire, hit the seat-stay and shattered. My sidewall was slashed wide open and it nicked the tube. Fortunately I was able to patch the tube, had CO2 with me, and used the ‘ol dollar bill trick to patch the sidewall. It was good enough to get home.
The amount of broken glass and goat-heads are bad enough in the Fort, now watch out for razor blades!