Sometimes Things Break

 

I try to keep my bike in good shape so that I don't run in to any mechanical problems while on the road. I usual have only 1 or 2 flats a year and have only once in 30 years not been able to get the bike back to the starting point. But every once in a while things are going to break. 

Today I did Laura's ride out of Pennington. When I pumped up my front tire before the ride the pin inside the value shot out when I took the pump off. I threw some tubes in the car and change the tube before the ride.

 Laura planned a 50 mile 2600ft ride. I felt pretty good as we were doing some climbing. There were 10 of us on the ride including most of the regulars. I was looking forward to a good social ride and catching up with everybody. 

At the top of Mt Airy Rd something didn't feel right with the back wheel and it was rubbing the brakes. I thought the wheel fell out of the drops but a quick looks showed that I broke a spoke. In fact the spoke was not even attached to the wheel and some where on the road. 

The wheel was not only rubbing the brakes but also the frame. As Bob will tell you a wheel rubbing a frame can do some real damage to a carbon bike. Jim was able to true the wheel up enough to keep the wheel from rubbing the frame and so with the brake open at back I decided to head toward Wheelfine to try and get it fixed. The rest of the group continued with the ride. 

It was about 4 miles to Wheelfine and although I felt the back wheel wobbling under me I made it without a problem. Michael was there and there is no body better to fix a broken wheel. He is also an interesting person to hang out with and so we had a good conversation as he fixed the wheel. He ended up putting in a new silver spoke which contracts with the other black spokes but I don't care how it looks. The wheel is probably better now than before and I had no problem making my way back to Pennington. 

It wasn't the ride I was expecting to do and I ended up doing half of it on my own but some times now matter how well you keep up your bike stuff is going to break so you just have to find a way to fix it and make your way home.

The wheels on my Synapse were not the best wheels to begin with so I will probably be looking for new set of wheels as when one spoke break other could follow soon after.