I sit here at the Tech Snak in Springfield, eating oatmeal and typing on one of their five computers while Ben sits at another, reading the new Harry Potter online. Yesterday, July 20 -- Pittsburg, KS to Springfield, MO -- 96 miles. Overslept: started 10 a.m., arrived 8 p.m.
Crossed paths with Lawrence from Birmingham, England while still in Kansas. He was going the lightweight route -- road bike with carbon fork. His rear wheel had recently broken and he had to get a ride to Springfield to get it replaced. We crossed into Missouri a few miles outside of Pittsburg. 17 miles into the ride I was still hearing a tick, tick, tick in one of my wheels and decided to stop and try to figure it out. As I leaned on my seat and rolled the bike forward I could recreate the problem. It was the rear wheel. Ben's sharp eyes noticed some cracks in the rim around one of the spokes and he asked if this was a problem. Well, YES! I quickly got on my web enabled phone and found a bike shop in Springfield that had a 36 hole rim, a nice solid Mavic A719.
We rode on to Golden City, home of the much recommended Cooky's Diner, known for their vast selection of delicious pies. We didn't stay for lunch. The place was jammed due to Golden Harvest Days. We did take out a slice of dutch blueberry and a slice of dutch raspberry -- and yes they were delicious! After lunch at the local grocery store we were off. Menacing storm clouds to the south, headwinds and rolling hills as we headed east. Tick tick ta tick tick tick went the rear wheel. I didn't dare look at it again to examine the progress of the crack(s).
In Everton, we stopped into the gas station where four good old boys were shooting the breeze. As soon as I entered, one fellow got up and offered me his chair right in front of the fan. Oh it was hot and really quite humid this day. Even Larry Kenney thought so. I explained our predicament and asked if anyone with a pickup truck happened to be heading to Springfield. After a brief pause Larry said he would be going, but not until after 7 p.m. I got his phone number and said we might call him from Ash Grove, the next town. Off we went -- Ash Grove -- wheel still rolling and plenty of daylight. So we continued on to Springfield, then through Springfield from northwest through downtown to east central to the Lamplighter Inn just one block from the Sunshine Bike Shop where Josh would be building my wheel tomorrow.
This morning when we took the wheel off at the bike shop, I looked and found one spoke that was really pulling out - cracks forming a cross around the spoke hole, and the rim was starting to buckle - much worse than what I saw back on the road about 80 miles ago. Well, it's 11:30 a.m. and the wheel should be ready. Ben will have to continue his reading in another town.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment