Just outside Georgetown I got a flat :( It had been a sleepless night with gusty winds. I'd started early, but then spent hours on the side of the road. The flat wasn't puncture. I'd been told that I should run my tires at a lower PSI, so was experimenting with that. I'll stick with higher pressures from now on. It looked like the bead of the tire was rubbing on the rim. It rubbed through to the wire, which then punctured the tube. It had been that way for a while - the wire was rusty and the rim tape was also stained. Closer examination showed the tube being slowly cut by the rim tape where the rust had stained it.
Lucky I had spare rim tape and a spare tire.
Except I couldn't get the tire to sit on the rim right. It would have a flat spot on it. That felt like a bump when cycling. Most uncomfortable. Finally I worked it out. The old rim tape is about 17mm, the new one was 22mm. So I sat and cut with scissors 2mm off one side, and 3mm off the other side to narrow it down. Then the tire sat right. No more bump or flat spot on the tire.
For all the time sitting on the side of the road, I still managed a healthy distance. The wind was still blowing, so propelled me along just nicely. The only downside was trying to keep cool; it seemed like I was cycling in still air.
