Sunday, September 12, 2010
biking on
Finally had to change the wheels on my bike. Made it to 17,000km. Not bad.
The last time I had a tuneup the mechanic warned me a shouldn't be riding with rims as thin as mine. It's the years of rubber brakes that wear down the rims. I said no, and he wrote a big red disclaimer on the bill. I felt so bad.
But finally it was the hike to Mount Windsor that did the rims in. GR and I did the hike. Start just outside Britannia Beach, hike up to Deaks lake, then on to Mt Windsor.
The hike to Deaks lake is about about 2km gravel road and 2km trail. We pushed our bikes up the gravel road to save the legs on the way down. (BTW, the view from Mt. Windsor was spectacular).
I got a bit too smart on the way down: thought I'd let a bit of air out of my tires to increase the control and ease the bumps. Unfortunately let a bit too much out of the rear tire, and didn't have the air pump, so about half way down I'm bottoming out rim on gravel and the tube finally goes.
Walked the rest of the way down with the back rim now a complete mess. However, it struck me as a much better for the rims to go out with a bang, rather than being shuffled off to the dust bin because of old age.
The last time I had a tuneup the mechanic warned me a shouldn't be riding with rims as thin as mine. It's the years of rubber brakes that wear down the rims. I said no, and he wrote a big red disclaimer on the bill. I felt so bad.
But finally it was the hike to Mount Windsor that did the rims in. GR and I did the hike. Start just outside Britannia Beach, hike up to Deaks lake, then on to Mt Windsor.
The hike to Deaks lake is about about 2km gravel road and 2km trail. We pushed our bikes up the gravel road to save the legs on the way down. (BTW, the view from Mt. Windsor was spectacular).
I got a bit too smart on the way down: thought I'd let a bit of air out of my tires to increase the control and ease the bumps. Unfortunately let a bit too much out of the rear tire, and didn't have the air pump, so about half way down I'm bottoming out rim on gravel and the tube finally goes.
Walked the rest of the way down with the back rim now a complete mess. However, it struck me as a much better for the rims to go out with a bang, rather than being shuffled off to the dust bin because of old age.
