Heil Valley Ranch Pinch Flat

After our Valentine's Day ride at Heil Valley Ranch, the weather turned yucky again (unless you're a skier) and kept us off the trails. A month later, Heil was dry again, so we loaded up the full set of four for another spring (almost) ride. And Quinn's first pinch flat.

It's about an hour from our house to Heil, which is a few miles north of Boulder on Highway 36, and west up Left Hand Canyon. It's a long drive from our house, but everything closer was still too wet to ride and I was anxious for some trail time. We couldn't have picked a nicer day. Although it was still in the 40s F at 9 a.m. when we arrived at the trailhead, it warmed up quickly into the 60s F.

I still haven't replaced my Garmin GPS device, so don't have a GPS log from our ride, but you can get more details about the ride and the park at the MTB Project page.

The aggressive grouse wasn't chasing away humans at the overlook this time, so we were able to sit down and enjoy the view and some snacks.

Back on the trail, I stopped and snapped some lazy action pics. Here's Cindy demonstrating the normal sort of two-finger braking.

Here's Abbey, with her atypical two-finger approach. She's never been particularly concerned about convention.

And then the pinch flat. If you're a mountain bicyclist, odds are you're all too familiar with pinch flats. A pinch flat can occur when you run into an object, say a pointy rock, with your tire hard enough that the rim squishes the tire, pinching tire and tube between the object and the rim. Running a tubeless tire setup can reduce the likelihood of pinch flat, but in this case I don't think it would have helped.

Heil Valley Ranch is a mountain of crumbled limestone that holds plenty of opportunities to pinch flat. Quinn found one by jumping off one nice limestone slab and landing on the point of another with his rear tire. He was ahead of the rest of us, but we heard his exclamation of surprise as his rear tire instantly deflated. He hit the rock hard enough that his rim punched two holes in his tube and two holes in his tire. The sidewall of the rim bent inward as the metal made direct contact with the limestone through the tire and tube. He was so proud of himself.

I replaced the tube and, despite a couple of holes in the tire, the Continental Mountain Kings held up just fine for the rocky ride down. Once back home, I cut some pieces from the sidewall of an old tire and used contact cement to glue the patches to the inside of Quinn's tire. Quinn's tire was nearly brand new; otherwise I might have just thrown it away. We'll run it on the rear, and see how the patches hold up.