“Stopping…”
My friend Kevin and I set out to do a loop of Lake Washington yesterday. The basic concept was to bookend our year of riding with this particular route. Our first ride of significance in 2006 was the Lake Loop, on January 22nd. To end the year of riding on December 30th with the same route would have given a certain symmetry to our year of cycling.
We met up at Kevin’s house mid-morning, and our spouses headed off for a “spa day”. While they were getting massages and relaxing, the boys were to go riding. A very workable plan. Kevin finished breakfast, we loaded up bikes and headed south through the Wedgwood neighborhood of Seattle in order to intersect the Burke-Gilman Trail. It was cold, but the sun was brilliant and made you feel much warmer. There was only a bit of frost on the ground and there did not appear to be any major ice patches.
5 miles in to the ride, I noticed a noise and vibration when I applied the rear brake. We stopped along the trail to investigate and I saw that one of my brake pads had come loose and was turned such that it was rubbing against the tire. I set about to tighten said brake pad, but then I couldn’t seem to get a complete revolution out of my wheel without brake contact. Further inspection showed that the rear wheel had gone way out of “true”, and the culprit was a failure of my rim at one of the spokes.
In my typical topic-immersion mode, I read tons of material about cycling when I took it up as my activity of choice. In that reading I had seen several references to the need to reliable wheels, and the fact that heavier riders (aka Clydesdales) need heavier duty wheels with more spokes. When you go to buy bicycles, however, the stock wheels on these shiny new machines are sleek and sparse in the spoke department. The wheels on my winter bike only have 24 spokes, when by all accounts I should be riding with at least 32. My inquiries at bike shops about whether I’m adequately spoked results in comments like “don’t worry, you’ll be fine”. Please, tell me what I need to hear, not what you think I want to hear, ok?
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December 31st, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Well, I’m fatter than a bear the day before hybernation, and I never had a problem with Splenda’s 16 spokes. The Boy, however, who is considerably less hefty than I, and whose bike has a few more spokes than mine, broke one on last year’s Chilly Hilly. I think it has less to do with rider weight and more to do with tires losing their true.
I base this on the fact that both you and The Boy rode your bikes with more frequency than I last year, you both broke a spoke, and I did not. Tires gradually lose their true from the perpetual use of riding, as well as the wear and tear of the little bad things we do to them each time we hit rocks and curbs, or fling the bike into the back of the car. I also see on his blog Halifax Steve is trueing his wheels all the time, and he rides a couple times each day.
You certainly could always use more spokes, but on rides where you aren’t loaded for touring, I don’t think they’re entirely necessary. When balanced properly, your wheel should be able to support you quite easily, and judging from the picture, I’d be willing to bet that your spoke went wonky because the wheel was no longer true, rather than vice versa. Talk to a mechanic you trust about how frequently you should have your wheels trued. Many places do it for under ten bucks, or you could take a class and learn how to do it yourself. There’s a New Year’s resolution!
January 1st, 2007 at 10:16 am
Thanks for the info. As fate would have it, I had my local shop install new brake pads on the rear of that bike on Thursday night, a task which required them to true the back wheel in order to get proper clearance for the fresh and fat new pads. I want to believe that the wheel was already beginning to fail at that point, and that it wasn’t a case of overzealous spoke tightening.
Among many things I’d love to learn to do would be wheel truing, and even building.
January 1st, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Let me know if you find a reasonable option for the trueing/building class. It’s something I’ve had a mild interest in.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Hmmm. They trued the wheel and then it broke? Sounds an awful lot like taking your car to the dealership for a complimentary oil change, then having your air conditioning fail the next day! Coincidence?
=)