Air Kiss, awesome stuff!
First road ride at the lake this year was a little more interesting that some. I followed the usual route of heading out Storm Bay Road, east on Hwy 17 and then taking the bypass, Hwy 17a west back towards Winnipeg and then turning back on Hwy 17 into Kenora, a stop at the Safeway Starbucks and back to Storm Bay.
What made this ride a little unusual was a flat, not just one flat but two! One flat on the rear at about 37km into the ride and the second on the front at about 73km, within 1-2 km of being back at the cottage. This little CO2 device is my new best friend on a ride. It’s the first time I’ve used one and it was very impressive. One little “pfssst” and the tire was at full pressure. This is in comparison to 100+ strokes on a mini-pump which never really reaches the preferred riding tire pressure. I did have a mini-pump with me as well and I used it fill out the tube on the first flat. Later in the ride I stopped at the LBS on Kenora and picked up a tube and some patches. This turned out to be a very good move. After a nice coffee at the Safeway Starbucks it was on towards home. This section of the highway has several rough gravel sections where they have torn up the road to put in new culverts across the highway. I’m blaming these rough gravel sections for at least one of the flats.
The annoying part of the ride, besides having two flats, was on the second flat I realized the mini-pump was missing in action. Fortunately the Air Kiss had enough left to fill the second flat as well. Later in the day we drove back to the place where I changed the first flat expecting to find the pump, but no luck. It’s now on the shopping list with a couple of more CO2 cartridges.