Yesterday, while turning left from the road to the state park trail, my front bicycle tire blew as I braked to make the turn. I eventually fell to the ground and added some minor lacerations to my already well-scarred legs.
This is the second blown tire and the third crash since I began riding on June 18. I will repair the tire and get back on again.
Others caution about riding a bicycle at age 68. This may be a numbers game where the more crashes I have, the more likely I am to break a bone or worse. There may be something to that. I attribute my lack of serious injury to jump school training where we learned how to land safely after falling from an aircraft. I found presence of mind during the incident and was able to let go and land safely, flashing back to some of the parachute landings I made in 1976. Mostly my ego is bruised and I want to figure out why a relatively new tire blew.
This morning Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are within reach of winning the electoral college and the presidency. The incumbent is not expected to concede. We wait for the count to be completed.
Second District Congressional candidate Rita Hart lost her election by 284 votes. We’re waiting to see if additional valid ballots arrive at the 24 auditor offices in the district and change the total. We’ll know a final number by late Monday or Tuesday when the vote is to be certified. For the time being it’s not official.
Last night there were more reports the coronavirus pandemic was surging out of control in Iowa and nationally.
To take my mind off the election I watched a streamed forum with four local news reporters talking about politics. It was fit distraction. Those events used to be held over a beer in person. Maybe next year.
Yesterday Pattison Sand announced they withdrew their appeal to Iowa Department of Natural Resources denials of a permit to withdraw water from the Jordan Aquifer and ship it out of state. They will be back.
On Friday, we wait to see what happens in the presidential election. It’s hard to think of anything else.
Journey Home 
2 replies on “Friday After the Election”
As soon as I read “my front bicycle tire blew…” I instantly started to wince!
You may already know everything that I’m about to say based on my partial knowledge of such things, but here goes for you or anyone else who might read this.
I’m older and probably more out of shape, and I fear falls far more than I did as a younger person. Examination of your tube may tell you how it was it failed. I read you have 90 psi tires, so you running significantly narrower tires than I use these days, but that also says you are monitoring the tire pressure. It could have been just a bad luck road hazard puncture. My last one was a heavy tack or nail a couple of years ago, kyptonite to even a puncture-resistant touring tire that I had on that bike. However, If the puncture is on the inside, rim-side, of the tube it could be a rim strip that isn’t fully protecting it from a spoke end in the well of the rim, something that old bikes sometimes develop, Or, if there are two holes (classic “snake bite”), then even with proper air pressure you may have hit something that managed to pinch the smaller tire enough to cause a blow out, and some of those pinch flats can deflate fairly fast. Larger air volume tires are less likely to pinch flat, but then many older brakes and frames have limits to how big you can go tire-wise.
My wife who mostly rides a hub geared bike that is harder to change a tire on, went with tire liners (Mr. Tuffy brand I think) which are supposed to be extra protection from road hazard flats, and they do work for her.
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Thanks for the detailed comments.
I think my brake pads were improperly aligned and they caused undue pressure on the sidewall and the new tube to pop.
I was braking and rounding a turn at about 12 mph.
Back at it today. I’m not married to this old bike. I have a newer Cannondale someone gave me which once I figure out how to use Presta valves will ride. No serious injuries, except my ego :)
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