Frustrated Incorporated

Chris raced Mesa Verde this weekend with Alex. I was a bit back and forth as to whether or not I would join him. I opted to stay home for a couple of reasons. First, that would make it three weekends in a row where I would be out of town. I was visiting family in California last weekend and am scheduled to travel for work next. Part of me just wanted to be home. Second, I figured I would be able to ride more if I was home. Granted I could ride the days before and after the race, but I would need to be sacrificing a whole Saturday worth of riding. Again, note this would be three Saturdays in a row.
So I stayed. I worked Friday but didn't ride "saving" my legs for what I anticipated being a long* ride on Saturday. I had my plans for the day laid out and was going to ride later in the afternoon. I needed to "Stans up" my rear tire because I got a flat last time I rode. We came back through a construction area and I picked up a hitch hiker. Luckily I just had a short distance back to the car.

Well, I tossed in some more Stan's which seemed to seal the hole, but I was still losing air. It was coming from the hole of the stem. I messed with the stem a bit, pumped it up again, and it continued to lose air. I spoke to Chris and he recommended breaking the bead and putting a new stem in it. Ugh! I hate breaking the bead because I struggle to get it re-seated. I swapped it out went to pump it up and it still lost air.
I still had my hard tail. BUT I could not open either skwer. I felt defeated.
Chris called back and this time suggested swapping the tape also. He walked me through what this would entail. I did it but with the same results. Chris did have a good suggestion for getting my skwers open which worked but it was later in the day and I was defeated.
When Chris got home he messed with my rear tire a bit. He struggled to figure out what was wrong with it. He too was getting frustrated. While I hate to seem him frustrated, I did feel a bit of justification in my struggles. He finally got it to work, but is/was still stumped by why it was not working as it should. Even though Chris was completely cooked, he still went for a ride with me. And it was delightful.

*Long ride is a relative term. Long for me these days would be about three hours.