I had 3 things to do last night, which I guessed would take an hour. I had to put new laces in my race flats, box up a Mother's Day present, and clean my bike chain & check the tires. Everything was going fine, until I ripped the valve stem while removing the pump, causing an irreparable flat.
When I had 2 good hands, I could change a flat in about 3 minutes. Last night I worked on it for almost an hour. Granted, I wasn't changing a well worn kevlar bead race tire. This was a Conti Contact with a wire bead. Side note: This is the best tire ever! I've been riding a 28mm Contact for 3 years and this is the first flat I've had. And the flat was caused by me ripping the tube.
Anyhoo, It took 4 tire levers to get the darn thing off, and 3 to put it back on. I used to use 2 levers for removal & I could push the bead back on with my thumbs.
Which got me to thinking...what would happen if I got a flat during a race? On a short course event, I'd double my bike split! I need to find out if there's some fix-a-flat foam for bike tires. If not, I'll need to sacrifice something to the tire gods before each race.
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