trapdoor2
Zen MBB Master
After the wettest winter/spring in many years, the planets aligned (read: honey-do list got knocked down a bit) and I was able to take the Conversion out for a ride Sunday morning. Back a few weeks ago, I put about 10mi on her in between rain showers but Sunday I opted to take it out on my favorite local marathon route. Saturday night was spent giving her a thorough check out and touching up the new wheelset (had gone out of true, typical of new wheels).
So, off I go. 68F/20 C, no wind and low humidity...beautiful morning for a ride. It is downhill from my house for about 1/2 mile, so I simply get rolling, select the big chainring and stop pedalling. In the flat, I resume pedalling...to the harsh noise of a chain rubbing somewhere. Hmm...shift to mid-ring, no noise. Shift to small ring, no noise. Shift to big ring...noise. I stop at a convienient spot and spend a minute or two looking the front end over. I forget how easy it is to lift up the front end and operate the pedals...sweet! Unfortunately, I can hear the noise...but can't find where it is coming from! Nothing's going to rain on this parade, I simply chose to finish the ride in the mid ring...and happily pedalled off.
I've not been riding much, so my expectations are set really low. All I want to do is run half the route, stop at the coffeeshop @ 8am to do the Sunday Morning Coffee thing with my brother and then finish the route.
Well...I did get the coffee.
I really didn't have any difficulties until I was about 20min from the coffee-shop. I made a pit-stop and noticed that I was behind schedule. No worries, I texted bro' Don and told him I'd be late. However, as I was cruising thru one of the sub-divisions, I thought, "Damn, Marc, you are slow today!" As I got to the last short-but-steep climb, I actually had to resort to the granny...huffing and puffing like a locomotive. I'm running out of energy fast. Within a mile of the coffee-shop, I'm in a smooth-flat section and nearly completely bonked out...leg cramps, a$$ cramps, etc., hard to even keep the bike rolling. I'm within yards of the shop and thinking, maybe I oughta call for SAG support!
I finally wobbled up to the coffee-shop and got off the bike. I'm whipped. I'm soaked with sweat. My legs are burning. Heart pounding. So I push the bike up to the curb...or try to. The front wheel is locked and actually skids on the ground.
OMG, I look down at the front wheel and it is so badly out of true that it is bound up against the brake on one side and wont move.
I go in and down a quart of cold green tea. The bike goes in my brother's truck (after we're done) and I go home to take some Aleve and recover (I'm fine today, none the worse for wear). Late yesterday evening, I remove the front wheel and find that every spoke is floppy loose; I can actually rattle the hub in the spokes. I've never experienced this kind of failure. :cry: The rear wheel is completely normal, nothing out of true, no problems. I assume the failure mode is some sort of cascade issue. Perhaps there are a couple of weak spokes and as they stretch, others take more load than they can stand and thus starts the cascade.
Weirdly, none of this made any noise. No ticking spokes, no squeeking brakes, nothing. The wheel is headed down to my LBS for new spokes today!
So, off I go. 68F/20 C, no wind and low humidity...beautiful morning for a ride. It is downhill from my house for about 1/2 mile, so I simply get rolling, select the big chainring and stop pedalling. In the flat, I resume pedalling...to the harsh noise of a chain rubbing somewhere. Hmm...shift to mid-ring, no noise. Shift to small ring, no noise. Shift to big ring...noise. I stop at a convienient spot and spend a minute or two looking the front end over. I forget how easy it is to lift up the front end and operate the pedals...sweet! Unfortunately, I can hear the noise...but can't find where it is coming from! Nothing's going to rain on this parade, I simply chose to finish the ride in the mid ring...and happily pedalled off.
I've not been riding much, so my expectations are set really low. All I want to do is run half the route, stop at the coffeeshop @ 8am to do the Sunday Morning Coffee thing with my brother and then finish the route.
Well...I did get the coffee.
I really didn't have any difficulties until I was about 20min from the coffee-shop. I made a pit-stop and noticed that I was behind schedule. No worries, I texted bro' Don and told him I'd be late. However, as I was cruising thru one of the sub-divisions, I thought, "Damn, Marc, you are slow today!" As I got to the last short-but-steep climb, I actually had to resort to the granny...huffing and puffing like a locomotive. I'm running out of energy fast. Within a mile of the coffee-shop, I'm in a smooth-flat section and nearly completely bonked out...leg cramps, a$$ cramps, etc., hard to even keep the bike rolling. I'm within yards of the shop and thinking, maybe I oughta call for SAG support!
I finally wobbled up to the coffee-shop and got off the bike. I'm whipped. I'm soaked with sweat. My legs are burning. Heart pounding. So I push the bike up to the curb...or try to. The front wheel is locked and actually skids on the ground.
OMG, I look down at the front wheel and it is so badly out of true that it is bound up against the brake on one side and wont move.
I go in and down a quart of cold green tea. The bike goes in my brother's truck (after we're done) and I go home to take some Aleve and recover (I'm fine today, none the worse for wear). Late yesterday evening, I remove the front wheel and find that every spoke is floppy loose; I can actually rattle the hub in the spokes. I've never experienced this kind of failure. :cry: The rear wheel is completely normal, nothing out of true, no problems. I assume the failure mode is some sort of cascade issue. Perhaps there are a couple of weak spokes and as they stretch, others take more load than they can stand and thus starts the cascade.
Weirdly, none of this made any noise. No ticking spokes, no squeeking brakes, nothing. The wheel is headed down to my LBS for new spokes today!
