Most of the flats that I’ve gotten over the years were caused by small pieces of glass. No surprise there, because shards of glass are the nemesis of every cyclist. Until yesterday, I would only consider one flat “weird”. Several years ago I once had a drywall screw puncture my MTB tire and actually seal it. I was riding home with a “click-click-click” and couldn’t figure out what was causing it. I have no idea how that screw ended up on a bike path though.

While riding back from Oceanside yesterday, I was happy that I hadn’t gotten a flat considering the amount of glass that I had ridden over and the number of cyclist that I saw changing tires by the side of the road. Entering Carlsbad, I knew my luck had run out. I knew I had a flat, since my tire rapidly lost pressure and I was riding on the rim.  Oh, well, should be a quick change and time to get back on the road.

Looking for the piece of glass on the tire, I was surprised to find a construction nail.  Yep, it had straight through the tire, tube, rim tape, and even the rim. Yikes. Check out the photo below and you’ll see where the nail punctured the rim.  The wheel is still rideable and I can do some “welding” when I get home.  Still amazes me though with the physics involved in getting a nail to do that.  Yep, I have a new “weirdest” flat.