It was still a pleasant ride, though, especially considering how the serious road bikers stared as they passed me on their expensive bikes in their ridiculous clothes. Arianna has held up remarkably over the years, especially considering the abuse I have subjected her to. She has been left for days in the rain, sleet and snow in both California and Aspen. She has been vandalized by homeless people and has taken a few spills on late-night rides home from the bars. It was a particular relief to make it out of the Poudre Canyon shortly after the last remnants of daylight disappeared. I was now less than a half-marathon away and could feasibly jog back home were an ill-fated mishap happen to the iron steed now, like another tire explosion.
Indeed, there seemed to be plenty of blue sky ahead and to the south. “Hey,” I asked the cashier at the Shell station, “is there a bike shop in town? ” The hope was I might be able to pick up another tube huffy cruiser bike before heading back to Fort Collins. It seems, however, that the sun-baked asphalt and 95-degree temperatures in Walden were enough to increase the tire pressure just enough to cause the tire explosion.
If the tire pressure is too high, the tires unseat from the wheels, allowing the tube to escape and pop like a balloon. So the night before I inflated the tires right up to what I thought was the “safe threshold,” which experience told me was 40 PSI on this bike (still 15 PSI under the maximum pressure labeled on the sidewalls). I wanted to have the lowest possible rolling resistance for this ride, after all.
Local store prices may vary, there is no price matching between this website and the stores. And like a heavyweight fighter who had just won the world champion belt after 15 rounds, the Huffster immediately retired for the night. Traffic got even heavier between the Mishawaka Amphitheater (Mile 170) and Ted’s Place (Mile 189), and I was thankful for lights and reflective gear while on this narrow-shoulder highway. For about 20 minutes during this stretch, raindrops were tapping the helmet—curious considering the weather apps had claimed a 0% chance of rain.
Maybe they thought a cruiser bicycle with a round honking headlight was “close enough” to being a Harley-Davidson’s brethren? Grab coffee on the ride and carry it in the convenient beverage holder on the handlebar. While Huffy has been one of the big bike boys on the block for some time now, they are fairly new to the cruising community. Known mostly for city and mountain bikes, Huffy’s cruisers do not compromise comfort in any way. I, too, went to sleep—at least for the next seven hours.
It wasn’t nearly enough to wipe out the sleep debt from the night before, but at least the bed was more comfortable than the weeds. After that, I decided it was a good idea to let some air out of the front tire to obviate the risk of that one popping too. Whatever the case, my wish for a relaxed, sit-down lunch stop at the Shell Station was now shot to pieces. I would have to bust out the wrenches huffy cruiser bike and Phillips screwdriver to disconnect the rear coaster brake and undo the rear axle due to the lack of quick releases. More unnerving was the realization that the ruptured tube was not salvageable and that I’d have to use the only spare tube in my emergency kit to replace it. I had patches for punctures, but it didn’t occur to me earlier that split tubes were a real possibility with this bike.