I had a big day out on the bike yesterday - took part in the Royal British Legion Poppy Ride. Went for the longest route option of 148km but cycled from home rather than take the car and finished on 213km (130 miles).
About 130km in I rode over some innocuous looking gravel on the road and got rewarded with an immediate puncture.
No problem I thought, just keep going and let the sealant plug the hole...
There still seems to be a lot of hissing out back and no sealant spraying anywhere...
It's starting to feel a bit lumpy on the back wheel now, must be a big 'un
Oh, I'm riding on the rim now, will have to stop
Schoolboy error. The only thing I didn't check when prepping my bike on Saturday afternoon was when I last topped up the sealant
I have an Excel spreadsheet for maintenance tasks but never even thought about topping up, so I think I hadn't put any more sealant in the back tyre for 10 months! I'd done the front wheel when I changed the tyres back in February. So I jabbed a Dynoplug into the tyre which seemed to seal after a wiggle and pumped what seemed enough air in to ride again. I was only 10km or so from the next feed station, so thought they might have a track pump to finish it off. They didn't. Gah. I deliberated adding fresh sealant (I had a small bottle with me) and/or more air. I decided the bike was riding okay, so elected to carry on and see what happened...
Well, I got home on my original minimal pumping effort and couldn't notice much difference in handling / speed, even on some fast descents or when I was desperately trying to hold the wheels of two faster riders that caught me. I grabbed my pressure gauge to see what I'd stuck in and was surprised to see just 23 PSI - yikes!