I patched my inner tube last night. The flat seemed to have been caused by a small glass shard I rode over, which was still embedded in the tire. I removed it. The inside of the tire feels smooth, so I’m hoping it’s OK.

I really don’t have a lot of confidence in my patch job — I used a glueless patch, and it seems to be holding for now, but I think it might be leaking slowly. It’s really hard to tell. I think I’ll probably replace the tube tonight just to be sure, and get some glue-type patches for future flats. Everything I’ve read says the gluey patches work better. Of course, I didn’t bother reading that stuff before I bought the glueless kind.

I usually make coffee at night and chill it in a pitcher, since I like iced coffee. I make enough for several days. However, I forgot I was out of coffee and didn’t make any last night. So I ended up going through the Starbucks drive-through (which I’m now calling a “ride-through”) on my bike on my way to work this morning. They were really cool about it and said they hadn’t had any cyclists ride through for a while. They didn’t even know that a type of mug they carry fits in a water bottle cage, and were interested to learn that.

I rode around Lake Lemon last night, which I have wanted to do for a while (see the Bikely Route here). I had ridden on South Shore Drive, which goes along the south side of the lake and across it on a causeway, several times (see this post), but hadn’t ridden North Shore Drive yet.

It felt great to ride — I hadn’t had a real ride since Saturday morning, and my road mileage has been weak lately. I love mountain biking, but I’ve been missing road rides, and they also tend to help my fitness level more. It helps that it was a beautiful evening, it rained earlier in the day and was a bit cooler as a result.

I brought my camera, but mostly only took photos of parts where I hadn’t ridden before — except these four shots.

The first two are on Tunnel Road, which takes you to Riddle Point Park, or to South Shore Drive. The last two are Lake Lemon from near the Little Africa Wildlife Viewing Area, and the Loveland Farms Sausage Shack. I’ve never ridden by the sausage shack when it was open. Hopefully someday I will and I can get some sausage.

North Shore Drive was a lot of fun, it’s hillier than South Shore, but still fairly easy for the most part — although there was one hill where I walked a short portion. It wasn’t a long hill, but it was pretty steep. It’s one of only a couple of hills in the area where I’ve had to walk. Usually, I can spin my way up almost anything, but it just got a little too steep for me. Maybe next time I’ll make it. You can’t actually see the lake from most of North Shore Drive, but it’s still pretty scenic.

The ride back from North Shore Drive was pretty as well. In hindsight, I probably should have ridden across Lake Griffy on my way back, as I was pretty close to it.

This morning, I got ready and was about to ride to work when I found my rear tire was flat. I pumped it up to see if I could find a leak, and I did find a slow leak and something embedded in my tire. It must have happened at some point on my ride last night, and I didn’t notice because it was only leaking slowly. I didn’t have time to fix it; instead, I changed my clothes and drove to work. I’ll have to deal with the flat tire tonight. If there’s any doubt, I’ll probably replace the tire as well as the tube, as the tires I have (Kenda Kontenders) are the ones that came with my bicycle, and I don’t think they’re that great anyway. Does anyone have suggestions for a good tire, just in case?