I had a flat tire on my bicycle yesterday. Flat tires happen to those who ride bikes, especially those of us who ride a lot, and where there are blackberry canes that lie across paths and roads. I don’t know for sure what caused this particular flat tire. Some debris might have been left on the road. One of the things about riding a bicycle with an electric boost is that I go farther from home and therefore have the possibility of having a flat tire farther from home. In most situations, this is not a big problem. I have the tools and a portable pump on the bike with me. I carry a spare inner tube and can replace the tube, pump up the tire, and keep going. However, yesterday, when I tried to repair the tire, I discovered it had been damaged and would not seat properly on the rim. I was in luck. Susan was at home, and I had a cell phone, so I called her, and she came out to rescue me. While I was waiting for her to arrive, I walked in the direction from which she would arrive and probably got about as much exercise as I would have gotten from a bike ride without a flat tire.

I thought of a couple of things as I walked. The first was a saying from my father. We always had jeeps that were used by his flagging crews. Later, he became a Jeep dealer for a while. This was before four-wheel drive was common. Many of the ranches and farms in our area did not have four-wheel drive vehicles. Ranchers had tire chains and knew how to use them. They also developed skills for driving in snow, ice, and mud. My dad’s saying was, “The benefit of four-wheel drive is that it allows you to get stuck a lot farther from home than two-wheel drive.”

A bicycle with an electric boost can have a flat tire much farther from home than a conventional bicycle.

I still have my old bike, which I have been riding for 35 years. It is in good shape and works like it did when it was new. However, I decided to buy a used bike with an electric boost last year and immediately learned to enjoy it. I can ride into the wind with less effort. The boost helps me go up steep hills. My bike has what is called “pedal assist,” an electric motor that boosts when pedaling. When I coast, it is just like a regular bike. They make electric bikes with throttles that can be ridden like a motorcycle, without pedaling, but mine is designed for those who want to pedal but want a little boost.

Another thing that I was thinking about as I walked was all of the stories that my father and father-in-law used to tell me about the early days of driving cars. They both learned to drive in rural North Dakota when cars were relatively new. Many farms didn’t have vehicles, and the farmers used horses for the formwork and transportation. My father’s family and my father-in-law's family were early adopters of cars, both families having Model T Fords as their first vehicles. Tires were much less reliable in those days. Flat tires were common, especially on the rough roads of rural North Dakota. Early drivers got good at making various repairs, including fixing flat tires. They carried patch kits and hand pumps, and when they got a flat, they fixed the problem. Spare tires mounted on wheels like the ones we carry on our vehicles these days came about fairly quickly, but all of my elders had stories about having more than one flat tire on a journey.

When my father and his brothers got together, they liked to tell the story about when one of them was driving, perhaps a bit too fast. The car slid around a corner, and when they stopped, all four tires were flat. The story had different versions, with different brothers driving the car, so I don’t know which one was driving. It was always told with caution, with the implication that the flat tires might have been avoided if the car hadn’t been going so fast.

My father-in-law told how an uncle took a corner too fast and tipped the car on its side. He had my father-in-law’s grandmother with him, and they had to cut through the canvas top of the car to get her out. After everyone was out of the vehicle, they could push it back onto its wheels, repair two flat tires, and get her back to safety. She was, however, injured. I don’t know the details, but she recovered from her injuries, and my father-in-law was given the job of driving her to church. He was eleven at the time. This was before North Dakota required driver’s licenses.

I went to the bike shop, and my bike now has a new tire and tube. It is ready to go. I also added a liner inside the tire to protect it from punctures. I hope it works. That was my fourth flat tire in the past six months, and I’m looking for a system to avoid some of the flats.

I don’t know how long it has been since I have changed a flat tire on one of our cars. I don’t think I have ever had a flat tire on our pickup. Like most newer vehicles, it has a tire pressure monitoring system that gives me a warning when a leak develops, and so far, I’ve been able to drive to a tire shop to get the repair done. I carry a tire pressure gauge and a device to reset the pressure sensors because faulty sensors are often the culprit when the dashboard light comes on.

I don’t want a similar system for my bike. Being able to fix a flat tire and get home is part of my adventure. I ride for recreation, and I like the feeling of solving problems as they arise. Bikes are lightweight, and I don’t need a jack to fix a flat.

Most importantly, I need stories to tell my grandchildren. They never had the opportunity to hear my dad and his brothers talk about the early days of driving when flat tires were considered part of the adventure, and people didn’t allow them to ruin their day. I want my grandchildren to be able to encounter problems and come up with solutions to keep going. When that happens, a good story can help you maintain a positive attitude..