I've been riding bikes in some shape or form for the last 35 years, and yet none of that had prepared me for what happened yesterday. On my usual commute from Stellenbosch to Somerset West, a route that Strava says I have ridden 462 times, I was to experience a unique life event. But this story doesn't start with my ride home - it starts with my ride to work. Just another day out on the bike, trying to stay alive, and at the same time enjoy the freedom of riding a bike, when I see a fellow bike rider with his bike upside down. (This sets of alarms bells - I judge cyclists who turn their bikes upside down rather poorly). Anyway, I slow down and ask if everything is ok (secretly hoping that everything is, and I can just get back on with my selfish commute). But no. Everything is not ok. It's then that I notice that there is another rider stopped too. A mountain biker (the victim is a roadie). And the situation looks dire. There are tools spread all over the place, and two sets of rather dirty hands. But only one tube. A tube that apparently deflates almost instantly. It's then that the excuses start flying. Spares have been left at home, and this is the first time it has ever happened blah blah blah. By this time I'm starting to realise that everything is not ok, and that I am going to have to part with my beautiful Conti long valved tube. Rather begrudgingly, I get my beloved spare tube out, and hand it over, while at the same time thinking about contingency plans should I now puncture. Relief is written all over the roadie's face, and I can see the MTBer breathing a sigh of relief too as he's off the hook with having to patch a tube. Pleasantries are exchanged, and the roadie asks me where I work so he can return the tube (not the first time I have heard this). Not actually expecting to ever see my Conti tube ever again, I just tell the roadie to pay it forward. Help out some other desperate soul. But he's insistant. So I give him my work address and head off, slightly annoyed at losing a tube, and more annoyed at having add 5 minutes to my commute. The day passes by, the action in the Giro banishing all thoughts of the Conti tube, when a guy walks into my office with a tube in hand. A Conti tube. The roadie from this morning - without his helmet on I didn't recognise him (thank goodness for the tube!). My faith in my fellow cyclists is slightly restored, and I can now forget about the Uber I was planning to call should I have a puncture on the way home. So - back to the commute home. I'm riding along, listening to music (don't judge me), and about to start climbing the aptly named Kotsbult when I hear a noise behind me. It sounds like a car with it's engine about to explode out of the bonnet. Nothing I haven't heard before. But the noise continues to get louder and louder, and I'm now getting worried that it is in fact in the process of exploding, when a bakkie come past me. And sparks. Like it's on fire. But not from the engine. The sparks are coming from the left rear wheel. Not wanting to get caught in the spark shower, I move over to the left, hugging the armco, while thinking that the bakkie is riding on the rim because he doesn't have a spare and he has places to go. Each to their own. Still - not something you see everyday. And I am about to continue on my commute home. When a f*****g wheel come bouncing past me up the hill, literally 30cms to my right, and on the line I was riding not 5 seconds previously. And it seemed to be catching the bakkie - doing at least 60km/h. Just as it passed me (and I almost had a Tommy D moment, but without the luxury of taking my bibs off), it veered to the left, smacked the armco, and then bounced into traffic, causing chaos. By this time, two of the guys on the back of the bakkie had hopped off, and were chasing the deviant wheel up the hill, in traffic. And I was completely frozen. My brain just couldn't handle this spectacle. I can anticipate with drivers who jump stop streets, and cars that turn in front me, but nothing in 35 years of cycling had prepared me for an attack by a crazy wheel! Thank goodness I gave that tube to the roadie that morning. Karma certainly was smiling on me!
