Roll Cat

So the weather was beautiful today. So it was a ride day. I lounged around the house for a while and drank coffee, and then geared up. I put some air in the new tires of Centurion and off I went. I had decided that the 8 mile loop was a necessity. It had been to long since I had ridden it, and I know on the skinny tires of the Centurion I could get some real speed on the back side when the road drops into the canyon that is on the other side of the ridge line behind my place. Pedal hard wondering if I'm going to be able to make a clean ride of the hill (The first hill is about 1.5 miles of a pretty good grade). I start the hill. I'm about two miles into my ride when the back of the bike suddenly feels squirrelly. Like I've bent the rim really badly (I know what that feels like because I've done it on my mountain bike). So I stop on the side of the road and assess the bike. I notice that the tire bead has pulled away from the rim and the inner tube is bulging out. Before I can unscrew the cap and let pressure out KA-BOOM the inner tube fails. No problem I think. In my tool bag I have a patch kit, tire levers, and a couple of co2 cartridges and a nozzle to fill the tire. I flip the bike and prepare to get to work when it dawns on me. The wheel is bolted on. I have no wrench. I begin to walk the bike back home. After about 100 yards or so the tire has pulled it's self so far off the rim it is tangling in the brakes every revolution of the wheel. I pick it up and carry it. In two miles carrying my (about) 30 lbs. bike my right arm got very tired, and the cable guide for the read brake cable managed to cut my shoulder. I got home and pulled things apart. The tube was a total goner. It was missing a patch of rubber the size of a dime. Even if I had had the wrench I would not have been able to patch it. I get one of the spare tubes and put it all back together. I decide that since my hands were already greasy I might as well re pack the bearings in the front hub. This turned out to be much simpler than I had anticipated. About 45 minutes later everything was back together and I decided to ride the 5 mile loop. I flip the bike up right and... the back tire is flat. Hrmmm... I think, I could have sworn I put 70 psi in there, oh well. Pump it up, put the pump away, and then comeback and feel the tire. It's defiantly softer than it was 2 minutes ago. Crap. I must have pinched the tub when I used a tire lever to get the last bit of the tire back on. Off the wheel comes. Off the tire comes. (And let me tell you, the narrower rims are much harder to do this than on my mountain bike. On the Trek I almost don't even need the levers) I fill the sink with water and search for the hole. Sure enough I can tell I pinched the tube. I patch it, put it back on the wheel, this time avoiding using the levers until the very last bit and pump it up. After all that it was 5:00 and I no longer wanted to ride. I'll go tomorrow morning.