Saturday March 10, 2012
I stop the bike and check it out. I found an American flag lapel pin embedded completely into my tire! You have all seen these things – they are a little bigger than a postage stamp, with a small nail sticking out the back to hold it on your collar.
I pulled it out of my tire fully expecting to make an emergency tube change on the side of the road. But amazingly, the tire did not instantly deflate. I could hear a very faint hissing, so I knew it was losing air. But it was late in the day, I was losing daylight, and I wanted to get to the end of the ride. I elected to ride on the tire, and it held pressure for the next 4-5 miles to the end of my ride. The tire wasn’t completely flat until the next morning!
This is the very first flat I have gotten on the Marathon Plus tires. Clearly, they are not fully flat-proof, but I don’t think any tire could have prevented this. And I think it amazing that it didn’t completely deflate instantly.