Two weeks ago I decided it was time to take the bike outside again. That Saturday was supposed to be nice and the UVU cycling team would be doing a group ride out by West Mountain. I don't know what meteorologist decided Saturday was supposed to be warm and clear but they were wrong. Even at noon when the ride was set to start it was a chilly 26 degrees out with a nasty inversion layer. A bunch of guys took off while we were unloading our bikes so our small group of four took up the rear. Kenton popped a flat on a set of railroad tracks only a few miles out from the start. Shea stopped to help Kenton while Hoz and I continued on, knowing they would catch up soon enough. I looked down at my arms during the ride and saw a build up of something white on my jersey. It took me a minute to figure it out. It was frost. Then only 9miles out my speed dropped from the low 20's to 16mph and I could not get it back up. What was wrong!? I hadn't heard my tire go out but it was the only thing I could think of. So I pulled to the shoulder and hopped off. Sure enough my front tire was flat. Hoz disappeared into the haze in front of me and I was alone on the muddy shoulder left to fix the flat. I took off the tire and pulled out my tools. Just as I was stuffing a new tube into the tire Hoz circled around to find me. I pulled out my CO2 cartridge to fill the new tube and nothing. I tired the trigger again. and again. Nothing it was empty. Good thing I had a second cartridge in my saddle bag. As I screwed the new cartridge in it exploded in my had covering my gloves in frozen CO2 that quickly disappeared. That was it. Nothing left. No way to change the flat and keep riding. So after discussing it briefly we decided I would hang out with my bike while Hoz rode back to his truck. In the hour it took for Hoz to come collect me 6 cars and 3 bikers stopped to offer assistance. Nice to know some places are still very biker friendly. It may not have been the best training session but it certainly was an interesting ride.
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