Extra Miles: Laurel Canyon 1992 and the PET 2023

I'm not saying it was the same thing, but similar in some vague sort of way.  Maybe. Well, a flat was involved in both cases, and extra miles were required to be ridden as a result. 

It was 1992, November 29th to be exact. A Sunday that year. Tom, Herb, Don and myself (just a bunch of Bicycle Doctor ride guys) set out from Griffith Park for a spin to the coast. We rode out Ventura Boulevard as far as Laurel Canyon - yes, that Ventura Boulevard, that Laurel Canyon - where we turned up and into the mountains. At the top, Mulholland Drive, we turned to the west, toward the big blue Pacific. We had only gone as far as Coldwater Canyon when Don suffered a flat...

What? Don climbing? Yeah, sure. I mean it might not have been his favorite thing to do, but he'd do it to ride with the group. What? Front or rear? I don't remember, damnit, and anyway that is irrelevant to the story, which I am now going to get back to...

So, yeah, Don flatted. Normally this would not have been a problem, right? I mean three compadres, each carrying spare tubes, and patch kits to boot. But this day, for whatever reason, Don was riding sew-ups. Without a spare. So there we were up on Mulholland Drive, with plenty of means to fix out the flat tube in a clincher, but nothing for a sew-up. After thinking about it for just a little while, only one option presented itself - Tom and I rode back along Mulholland to Laurel Canyon, down to Ventura Boulevard to a bike shop where we picked up a new sew-up so that we could get back to the ride. And that is what we did. I honestly don't remember if Don finished the ride with us after that, or turned back at that point, but the rest of us went on to Santa Monica where we ran into Mitch and Ed, joined together to ride to Topanga Canyon, up that road, back into the Valley and along Ventura for home. 

The extra miles because of a flat were worth it, turning a regular day into a semi-epic one. And, thirty years later, giving me a story.

Anyway, the mrs. got another flat today - there have been quite a few since the bike shop sold her a tire which wasn't the one I recommended she get (along with a clearly defective tube - the valve core keeps unscrewing). With she not carrying anything to facilitate a repair, and I forgetting to replace the tube we used the last time she got a flat. There was nothing for it but to ride back to Bark's Mike Shop (aka Mike's Bike Shop) where I picked her up not one, but two new tubes, along with all the flat fixing accoutrements that she for some reason never seems to have with her. 

Extra miles sure, okay, but far from epic.