Monday, May 7, 2007

It takes a thief...

The appreciation
Guys thanks for the calls to rally round for a spare rear wheel. I think I ended up with four wheels on offer. That’s really appreciated.

I've got a spare wheel / cassette until I buy a new set of wheels – and I'm looking for some very special ones which come with a battery pack and 240v pumping through its rims and spokes.

The history
Over the past many months I’ve learnt quite a bit about wheels. First it was spokes. Five broken over two sets of wheels. Then came the reinforced wheels – wheel smith spokes, double butted. Beautiful, we love the double butts. But, but, whilst they could repel my weight, they couldn’t repel the handy work of a thief.

The problem
My shimano cranks come with a top cap and two pinch bolts. The pinch bolts were weirdly loose (only tightened last week) and the crank slipped off whilst attached to the pedal which was attached to my cleat…
Now walking in carbon fibre soled cleated shoes is a challenge at any given time but when there is a pedal and crank attached to the cleat, it makes dismounting a whole new experience.

The situation
Just over the pedestrian/cycle path near Fort St Primary School last night, 7.30pm to be precise and consistent with my police report, cycling on return from work, my shoe/cleat felt unusually free... until wiggling the shoe a little more the crank fell off. The top cap was missing from the crank so I went in search of it with bike torch in hand.

The lesson
My bike was left against a railing with crank and pedal missing, the chain totally off, so virtually impossible to ride. It should be safe for 5 mins. Not. A good lesson learnt there my mother might say.

The joker
I was very cranky (literally) when I returned to my bike, with crank in hand, to see the rear wheel gone. The anger stayed for some time until after texting all of my woes including the missing of Tuesday morning’s ride to all and sundry. Then came George’s text… “Soft” That cracked me up. Anger gone.

Back out tomorrow. See you at 5am at Maissey's

Learjet xx

- ps if you know of anyone trying to sell a Neuvation rear wheel, double butted wheel smith spokes with/ or without Ultegra cassette - it could be mine.

2 comments:

martin said...

Does any one know what the topography of the Tour is like?
I've decided to change my lowest gear to a 27. Just thought it might be worth mentioning so none of us are caught after 100km's having to climb a mountain with only a 21!!

See you on the road

Mal said...

I've changed my lowest to 27 too. Why? Because in replacing my stolen wheel & casette, the supplier only had a 23 or 27 range in stock.

No wonder it took you so long to do that 100km with only a 21 Marty... a few more gears might have helped!!

Less than 2 weeks before the bikes get packed for Brisbane!

ps. before TDC training started 6 mths, marty's comment may as well have been written in latin.