I’ve been riding my bike to work now, on and off, for five years. More off than on, to be honest. But the more I ride, the faster I tend to ride. I don’t know if it’s leg strength, increased respiration, or just an ever increasing tolerance for adrenaline.

According to my uber-nifty bike computer, this morning I set a new record average speed: 14.3 mph (averaged over 8.53 miles). So, you math geeks out there have probably already figured it took me a shade under 36 minutes. Except you’re wrong.

See, my uber-nifty bike computer, much like the game clock at a soccer game, doesn’t consider stoppage time. If I’m at 0 mph, the clock stops. So the 15 minutes that my bike was disassembled on the side of the road was not part of my computer’s calculation.

I’ve had oodles of flat tires while riding off road. It’s just part of mountain biking. If you’re riding a bike any significant distance, you’d better have the tools and knowledge to fix a flat… or a busted chain… or a stretched brake cable… or… well, you get the idea.

There’s one simple step in the process of fixing a flat that, if skipped, can cause you a lot of irritation. After you’ve got the tube out and patched, don’t forget to run your hand around the inside of the tire. The nasty, pointy thingy that caused your flat may still be stuck in the tire and if you put your patched tube back in there, you’ll make it just far enough to be really mad at yourself when you get another flat. (Can you tell I’m speaking from experience here?)

I almost forgot that step this morning. I was really puzzled by the fact that I had not one, but three leaks in my tube. Three! I found a nasty thorn. (Say it with me: “Nasty nasty thorn!”) But that wouldn’t explain the weird double-hole in the tube: two holes opposite each other. So, I kept going around the tire. Sure enough, I found yet another, nastier, pointier thingy: A big ol’ nail.

I probably ran over the nail, and then as I rode on the slowly flattening tire, the thorn, which had probably been in my tire for months, finally got it’s chance to do some damage too.

So what lessons have we learned today? First, cell phone cameras are the best thing since sliced bread. Second (and more importantly), if Trint has anything notable happen during his morning commute, he’ll type out a long boring post and waste at as much of your time as he can.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!