Manseki and I rode into the mountains of northwest Kyoto to check out some roads I found on the map that we'd never ridden, but in trying to continue after a rest pause, I found my rear tire was flat. It must have been a slow leak of some sort.

Once on our way, we came to the first road to check out, which starts here.

Like so many of Kyoto's rural roads, it was lovely.

We tried both. The one toward the left quickly became gravel so we abandoned it.

The other continued nicely...

And then I got a flat on the front.

The road was in good condition, so we don't know what caused the puncture, but there was a hole in the tire similar to the first one. It, too, would have to be replaced when I got home. For now, I could use a new tube and a tire boot to protect the tube from the hole.

These “Vittoria Open Pave” tires were disappointing, since they were new just 2,690 km (1,670 mi) ago. I barely got three months of use from them.

The tires had gotten dirty from the sometimes-wet road, so I had the bright idea to wash them off in the river, which was right there....

While working on the front tire, the mini bicycle pump I carry just stopped working. It was fine one minute, seizing up and unpumpable the next. I would have been really stuck if Manseki hadn't been there... he gave it a go with his pump...

While he worked on that, I addressed a different problem I'd just noticed with the rear tire. When replacing the tube earlier, I hadn't seated the bead fully in one spot, so to fix that I needed to let the air out and refill it.

Unfortunately, I ran into all kinds of trouble. First, his pump doesn't work well with removable-valve stems, which I find out now is what I have. To have any hope, you've got to tighten the valve into the stem before attaching the pump, but apparently these valves are made from wet tissue paper, because the first one got completely sheared off when we tried to unscrew the pump...

This somehow caused the pump to become attached to the wheel... it took quite a while, and some leverage with a pair pliers (that Manseki amazingly had) to overcome. Sigh. I cannibalized a valve from one of the old tubes.

The body count: two tires, two tubes, an extra stem valve, and my tire pump. Then add to that our plans for the day: with this run of luck, we decided it would be prudent to just turn around and go home, slowly and carefully.

Despite the cursed ride, I wasn't in a bad mood, and I was certainly thankful for Manseki's company, skill, and tools.

But as un-bad as my mood was, it was made infinitely better when we came across a cyclist who looked a bit lost...

It turns out that she wasn't lost, but she was visiting from overseas and didn't know the area, so we told her a bit about the “Heart Loop” she was doing. (I wrote about this popular 50km loop in northern Kyoto last year.)

She was dressed in Strava kit, so I knew she used Strava. We'd be able to see each other on the Strava “fly-by” feature, which shows cyclists you passed on your route, so as we were leaving, I introduced myself so she'd know which one was me.

And here's where the “infinitely better mood” came in. Her face lit up and she said “I think I know you... it's your blog where I read about the Heart Loop”. It turns out she's following one of my recent activity tracks to lead her on her ride today.

Manseki introduced himself as well, to which she responded “Yeah, I guess I've seen you on his blog before”.

That was a nice little ego boost. 🙂

At home now, I've thrown away the tires and put on some Michelin Pro4 Endurance V2, and ordered a new bike pump (to be delivered tomorrow via the magic of Amazon Prime).