I had a really good time up until about 180 miles into Saturday.
This is long, by the way, so get a cup of cocoa, sit back and fall asleep.
Half way around a 15 mile circuit of Nant y Moch I suffered a too familiar adverse handling effect.
Bollox, a puncture - no obvious sharp object protruding, lots of cuts.
I rode the next 7 miles or so with an almost deflated tyre. Okay apart from one or two dodgy moments on loose surfaces.
At Ponterwyd on the A44 I decided, after a committee meeting, to whack in a can of TyreWeld. There were so many cuts in the tyre from whatever I had ridden over (nobody remembers any glass, but we crossed a lot of cattle grids and the roads were strewn with flint fragments) that it was not easy to identify where the air was leaking from (as Gerry said, if I had had some tread on the tyre then maybe I would not have had a lacerated tyre).
So, armed with mobile phone and Carole Nash recovery card, I set off back to Abergavenny some 60 miles away. I did reduce my normal speed on the by a significant factor, so rarely exceeded 70mph.
The bike seemed to be handling fine, apart from some weird wobbles across white lines and understeer in corners.
As the bike was handling within acceptable parameters, I decided to take a detour to Brecon as Gerry says they always have Tourance in stock.
Wack, wack, oops. "We did stock them sir, but we had 8 go past their recommended sell by date and threw them away". We can get you one by Tuesday".
Oh well, stick in some more air, starts leaking at 30psi. Only 20+ miles to go so bollox to it, off we go.
So, the wheel is sitting in the boot of my car until I can get to Brecon to have the tyre fitted.
As the tyre was foobarred anyway, the puncture is no big deal. I rode 260 miles on Saturday, a third of that on a flat or partially inflated tyre. I had a bloody good time.
Of course, finding out that I am a riding god that does need need air in my tyres has inflated (da, da, boom, chish) my ego.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
