It’s been coming for a while - I’ve been expecting it.
The tread on the front wheels of my Catrike Expedition has failed to be visibly present for some time now, resembling in texture something more like what you might see on the rear of a top fuel dragster. But those with experience know that there are a lot of miles yet to be had, even as the wheel starts to get smooth.
For a while, a year or two ago, I struggled with an excessive amount of tire wear. It turned out that my front wheels were not in proper alignment - one of the hidden joys of riding a recumbent trike is that you have to maintain alignment between the front wheels in a fashion not dissimilar to that of an automobile. But I’d resolved that issue, and I’d gotten upwards of 4800 miles out of the current tires. They just kept on going. And going.
Until they didn’t. Of course.
I noticed it about three miles into a ride. As I was rolling along I suddenly got a repeated “thump-thump-thump” coming from my right wheel. I briefly thought it might be an imperfection in the pavement, so I moved into another part of the lane to see if it went away.
“Thump-thump-thump”
It was hot out - almost freakishly so for this time of year. Here in the upper Midwest we went from the low 60’s to the low 90’s (F) in a day. Given that, I thought (well, hoped, if I’m being honest) maybe I’d just picked up a chunk of tar. So I pulled off to the side.
I… I… I’m just so tired…
Nope. Not tar.
That wear pattern was not on the tire the last time I rode it. Because they were far along in their rubbery lives I check them fairly regularly. I’d like to say that I checked it before heading out for this ride, but I did not. But in either case, I suspect the heat may have accelerated its inevitable demise.
I actually have spare tires - I ordered them a while back. Given the wear they were showing, and the supply chain issues of our current era it just seemed better to go ahead and get them. I did not, however, have the foresight to keep them on the trike. This essentially meant my ride would need to be cut short.
I texted my support crew (My Lovely Wife) to put her on alert, but I figured I would try to limp home. I was only about 3 1/2 miles out, and the tire had not yet failed, so it seemed like it was worth a shot, taking things very slowly.
I made it another mile. What’s more, although I knew it was imminent, I still screamed like a child when the tube popped.
I could have given up then and texted for MLW to come get me, and I did consider it. But, while I didn’t have spare tires with me on the trike, I did have tubes (always). So I could swap out the tube and try to make it the rest of the way home. But I knew that, if I just put another tube inside that damaged tire it would almost certainly pop again, the worn spot not providing sufficient protection from the road.
I’ve seen the idea of the dollar bill trick described and discussed multiple times on social media. In general the idea is that our “paper” money is actually made of a durable combination of cotton and linen, the better to help it survive all of that folding and re-folding, and so can function as a temporary tire patch to get you home.
I was certain that I had some denomination of paper currency with me, but I wasn’t sure how well the bill itself would come thru the adventure (I wasn’t excited about trying, say, the twenty dollar bill trick…), so I did spend a few minutes casting about for other options by digging into my panniers. I did have a roll of rim tape in there, and I made a brief, abortive attempt to fashion a patch using that. It was very quickly clear that the tape was not going to do the trick, so I started sifting thru my cash. As luck would have it George Washington was in fact present and ready for duty.
George is on the job!
I folded the bill in half and inserted it into the tire over the hole, between it and the tube. I rotated the wheel so that the patch fell towards the bottom of its arc to better keep it in place. Then I used my Kool Stop Tire Bead Jack (seriously one of my best purchases ever) to get the tire seated on the wheel, and headed out. Slowly.
It worked - I made it home without further incident. While I was riding, I noticed that the thrumming had stopped. Apparently the dollar bill was evening things out enough that the tire was behaving more normally. And when I arrived home, George was definitely a little more worn for the wear, but still in good enough condition to return to his more… typical service.
Made it thru with minimal wear and tear
My trip back on the dollar bill was about three miles, and it’s clear that I probably could have gone a little further. It’s also clear that what I should have done is gone forward with the dollar bill trick when I first noticed the thrumming and saw the damaged spot. Then I probably could have saved the tube that was already in place. Hopefully I’ll remember that the next time around.