Tonight, I changed out the front tire tube with a new heavy duty inner tube, just like the rear tire. Now, the bike is in great shape, with the added protection provided by much thicker tubes. The inner tubes I pulled out were very thin and the spoke tape was in the process of curling back, which is not good. When I removed the rear inner tube, I found out that an 1 1/4" screw had caused the blow-out. The inner tube sliced open about 6" from this screw, so it obviously went flat immediately. It was a good thing that I was able to control the bike to a stop. Now I have a little more piece of mind with the new tubes.
