Taking a breal from the car vs bike discussion I took SWMBO to canberra for a few days to ride around the lake (on the designated bike track).

Day 1: Excellent, one lap of lake with lunch on the way and back to the hotel. Strange thing happened that night. My front tyre went down. Easily fixed with spare tube.

Day 2: Set off and after riding for less than one minute see old friends walking on track. Stop to talk and while talking my tyre goes down again. I did check the tyre the night before. Can be fixed: have patch and off we go. Ride to bike shop where they fir a new tube and i buy one more. Ride to furthest point of the lake and you guessed it- another one.

Moral to the story is that at this time of year canberra has those little thorns (we called them 3 cornered jacks - but ours were bigger and woodier out west) and they work their way into tyres- especially road bike. Wifes bike had a few and although she is running heavy duty tyres they still worked their way in. Doesn't matter what tyres you use- stay on the track and keep away from mown grass on track.

Can't rant about car drivers but what about little old ladies who stop to talk on the track? And the kids doing their skateboard stunts down stairs and the railing while we were having lunch. They should make you pay to watch. I was going over my first aid training in my head the whole time.

Graham