Days like this

On Friday my Scott bike had to go for some front mech maintenance, so the backup Trek was taken off the turbo and prepped for a 200km permanent audax. Pumped the tyres, lubed the chain, fitted a bigger saddle bag and went to bed.
Saturday morning as I was about to cycle across the city, I realised my back tyre was flat. I was a bit perplexed as this as a 6mth old Schwalbe marathon, with very few miles of use. Replaced the tube and headed over to Whitehall to start the Kings Mountain 200 with Val and Ian. Everything went well for the first 50km. Then, with a sound like a gunshot, the rear tyre punctured. Before replacing the tube Ian spotted that the outer part of the tyre had started to separate at the seam. Fitted a tyre boot, replaced the tube and cycled on to Summerhill. Over coffee, I deflated the tyre, put a bead of superglue at gap in the outer shell (the inner lining on the Schwalbe marathon was intact). Gassed up they tyre and headed off with a view to making a detour to the bike shop in Trim. Just after Rathmoylan the tyre punctured again. Now there was a second hole in the tyre. Another tube, another tyre boot, another cylinder of gas and off we go again. Barely 2km later it punctured again. Ian headed off to Trim, and I started walking towards the next major junction.
Two cyclists stopped. One of them, Mick Kennedy (of Spun Cycles Trim) lived nearby. He went home and came back with a tyre and tube which he fitted in seconds. Im really grateful to him for this - a classic example of the solidarity among cyclists that we should all aspire to. We had lost a good bit of time, so Ian decided to head home from Trim. Val and I continued in order to lock in a September audax for RRTY (got back to Whitehall with 50mins to spare).



The marketing blurb calls this the “ANTI-AGING” SIDE WALL. It now lasts much longer before developing unsightly cracks when subjected to use with too low air pressure.