this could be a problem

From Drop Box

Or more specifically, this:

From Drop Box

The little brown clump is Stan's valiantly trying to seal a puncture about the size of a sideways M&M. Two days ago I rode on Laurel Mountain, and within a mile of leaving the grumbler, felt my back tire go flat. I never get flats, and I didn't have my mini pump with me, so I shot a Co2 into the deflated rubber. I was rewarded with a face full of latex sealant and the hiss of a deflating tire.

Thoroughly annoyed, I picked up the bike and ran back to the car. I dumped more Stan’s in the tire, pumped it up, let the sealant spew forth from the hole, pumped it up again, rode around the parking lot, let it deflate, poured in more Stan’s...and on for about a hour and a half. Some may wonder why I didn't just put a tube in, and the reason is I don't trust tubes as far as I can digest them (i'm assuming that butyl rubber doesn't break down in the tummy) I used to flat on every ride with tubes, and I flat once every three months tubeless. So to me, the 90 minutes of futzing around trying to get the white goo to stay in my rubber was worth it. (this post do sound kinda dirty don't it?)

The hole did seal, and I rode for two hours with no problems, but overnight, it went flat again. I pumped it up, and it was cool for another two hours of ridding. Before I had to go to work I patched the inside of the tire with a piece of tube and some vulcanizing fluid. I'm hoping that the patch in conjunction with the Stan's will be enough to keep my tire full of air on Sunday.

My other option is to go out today and buy a new tire and sealant, neither of which I really have the money to spend on with so many races coming up. But if the clot of Stan's decides to un-clot it self mid race, I'll be screwed and angry at myself for not fixing the problem when I had a chance. In other news of equipment failure, I busted the end of my pedal off about two months ago, and have been riding with it ever since.

From Drop Box

It hasn't died yet, but I can't imagine I'm doing good things for it. And QBP decided that right now was a good time to run out of Crank Bro's rebuild kits. QBP, you're really chappin my ass.

Racing and riding a lot is pretty damn hard on gear, and I'm just starting to realize, I have no back ups. No spare wheels, no replacement pedals, not even an extra set of tires. If anything breaks (knock on wood) I'll be pretty much out of it for the rest of the year. (or I'll have to race on the poo poo thunder) Smartparts has been a tremendous help this with regard to entry fees, but I really need some equipment sponsors for next season if I'm going to race as much as I want to.

Anybody want to hook a brother up?

edit: Actually I found a spare tire, but its a Rampage, which is a lot more meat than I want to pedal around on the back of my bike.

So now I have three options:

Mount up the Rampage and potentially go a little slower on gravel roads

Buy a new race tire and and be free of my money

Kiss my Crossmark and hope it doesn't explode mid race