User Error

Got up at 4:00 am again this morning to go for my ride.  I had checked out my rear tire again last night and it needs replacing.  There is a pronounced wiggle to it.  It appears to be "throwing a belt" in one spot where it is off center about 1/8".  Not a huge amount but very noticeable and I believe indicative off an impending total failure if I put too much stress on it, like cornering at speed.

I didn't want to not ride this morning as I wait for a new tire to arrive, so I decided to do some easy laps around the block.  I grabbed my Garmin, headed out and got ready to ride.  Once the Garmin had acquired the satellite signal, I hit the start button and heard a peculiar beep.  It was a combination of the high and the low beep the Garmin makes when it starts and stops recording the ride.

I headed out and started making some gentle laps around the block.  About 6 laps in, I decided to check my time as I was curious what my pace was taking it easy.  I was dismayed to see 00:00:00 on it.  It seems the peculiar beep was because I had double tapped the button when I started it, thereby immediately turning it off.  I hit the button to start it and verified it was, in fact, running.

I completed another 6 laps and called it a morning.  Looking at my Strava, it shows that I started the ride at 4:10 but only had moving time of 14:28 and a distance of 2.84 miles. The elapsed time, however, was 29:35. It was obviously user error.

Oh well.  I know I went the distance and my health will benefit from it, even if there is no record of the true distance. :)

As for the tire, while the tread is not overly worn, you have to figure I have stressed the tire much more than a normal rider would due to my weight.  Looking at the rides I've done since I put those tires on the bike in 2013, I've got over 1200 miles on the tires and I figure that's worth about twice that for an average rider. The other thing I noticed on close inspection of the tire, is that the ride half is noticeable worn more than the left half. The reason for this is that the vast majority of the turns I make on the bike, especially at speed, are right turns so it makes sense.

I hope you can get on your bike and ride!