The Bewildering Bicycle Ride

A few weeks ago my dad and I decided to take an afternoon to ride a bike trail not far from our home. It was a hot summer, Saturday afternoon, with temperatures topping off over 100 degrees. We both had already spent most of the day out in the sun, but decided it would still be nice to take a bike ride. So after checking the air in the tires, we loaded the bikes up in the car and headed over to the trail.

Despite the high humidity, it was a wonderful afternoon in the summer sun with a refreshing breeze. We saw several people we knew and waved hello as we passed them.

The trail itself is about eight miles in distance. We usually travel five miles, making it a ten mile ride round trip. However on this occasion, that was not the case. A short distance into the trail, I noticed that it was becoming difficult to pedal, so I shifted gears and kept on going. Not too long after that, I began to feel tired and was having difficulty pedaling. We made it to a stoplight about 3 miles into the trail and while we waited for the crosswalk light to change, I took a moment to catch my breath. Soon after that Dad noticed that I was still falling behind asked me if maybe the heat was getting to me. I said I wasn’t feeling dizzy or physically exhausted, but we decided to turn around and head back just in case.

With only two miles left to go until reaching the car, I had to stop and catch my breath again. I was completely puzzled as to why I was having such a difficult time. We pulled off to the side of the trail and I got off the bike for a moment. As I was standing there catching my breath, I looked down and what did I find? My rear tire was completely flat! This entire time I had been riding on a tire with no air in it what so ever. I knew I wasn’t feeling the signs of heat exhaustion, and I had been driving myself crazy trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

I couldn’t do anything but stand on the side of the road and laugh.