Hiromi_X

I was happily riding my bike today when all of a sudden it began to wiggle and quiver and shimmy underneath me. I don't panic, though, even at times when I lose control of something. This sort of thing happened before when driving a car -- once when I had a blowout going 90 mph, and another time when I drove a car in the snow downhill without snow tires. Each time I just got off the gas, moved over, and braked carefully.

It was what I thought it was -- when I stopped the bike, I looked at the rear wheel and yup, flat as a pancake. Fuuuuuuuuck.

Bikes don't have spare tires. And you can't patch the kind of tire my bike uses. Plus it's hard as fuck to move a bike with a flat tire. I tried using my legs to push it while on the bike, but I had to get off and push it to the side of the road between two parked cars.

I was at a loss -- I don't have anyone to help me -- but again, I don't panic. I had to
1) Get my bike to a safe place
2) Get it towed somewhere
3) Get home
4) Minimize cost and stress

I calmed down, cased out the area, and found a safe parking lot. Buuuuut, I had to lift the bike onto the sidewalk to get to it. A bike with a flat tire is just dead weight; I could barely push its 300 pounds to the side of the road. Thankfully, this was near UT, with bunches of young guys walking around around who could be recruited as manual labor. I put on my most appealing expression and asked one young student who was walking by to help me, and he and another guy who jumped in of his own volition lifted the bike onto the sidewalk and pushed the bike into the lot for me.

Thankfully again, there was a bus stop nearby, so I got home no problem. And I remembered that I can get the bike towed for free through insurance, and I had already asked around about good repair shops in Austin, so I chose one that was on a bus line that I could ride to pick the bike up after it was done (it turned out to be a giant nail).

One thing I learned today is that feminine powers are not entirely a bad thing. I had no trouble finding male help for pushing my bike, and the repairmen at the repair shop, who are notorious around these parts for being dickish and condescending, were super nice and solicitous. The proprietor even walked out of the shop while I was gearing up to tell me about a very minor adjustment he made to one of my rearview mirrors. He was being so nice to me that I wondered if he would come out of the shop.

Hee!

This all might seem pretty minor, but I'm really proud of how fricken deftly I took care of the whole thing with minimum fuss. My more experienced biker friends tell me that maintaining control of a bike with a flat is not a beginner skill. And I never stressed out. I took care of shit. 'Cause I'm a rock like that.