Had a fast descent from the Swiss-Italian border down into Val Venosta (Vinschgau). In Glurns we were forced to take an extended break to fix James' flat tire. This was not unwelcomed since Glurns is a most charming little walled city.
But what may the cause of the flat tire be? With our Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires punctures are so rare that we almost forget where we placed our patch kits. Well, for those of you who like techy bike talk, keep reading because I will explain the cause of our trouble. When James purchased his new rear wheel in Switzerland it came with this stiff, plastic rim tape, which looks fancy and such but its edges are very sharp and can slice the tube open if it slides around at all. We were aware of this upon purchase but the eyelets on the rim had been thickly covered in wax to keep them from rusting. To mount the soft edged, fabric like rim tape all that wax would have had to be removed in order for that tape to stick. So since the fancy plastic rim tape fit into the rim very snuggly with hardly any room to slide, we had decided to leave the plastic tape on and hope for the best. Clearly that was a mistake because during our steep descent the breaking action had heated the rim up to the point where the wax liquified resulting in the rim tape sliding around and ultimately slicing the tube. Luckily James had kept the old fabric rim tape which was a real life saver on this day. At the bike shop they had assured us that the plastic rim tape is no problem but the wheel of a fully loaded bike clearly behaves differently than that of a regular bike, especially on a steep down hill stretch.
Luckily all was well after half hour of inspection and repair time. The rest of the day we spent on the famous Val Venosta bike path which runs along the Adige River through apple orchards and cute little towns.
See www.etsch-radweg.com.
Conveniently, this part of northern Italy is German speaking so any communication was no problem.
Brigitta, de Veloweg waer oepis fuer dich!!! Alles gat ganz liecht abwaerts und mit dim E bike waers sowiso keis Problem. Nimm dir emal de Herbert under de Arm und sVelo zwuesched Bei und los is Suedtirol fuer es paar Taeg. Mir hend di ganz Ziit gseit dass de Radweg wo vo Innsbruck bis Verona verlaeuft so super waer fuer dich und de Herbert. Mir sind de Teil vo Glurns bis Mori gfahre.
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