Comments on: Close, but no cigar

By: » Minty Boost sqrt(-1): Jim Carson, reloaded: This one goes to eleven.

» Minty Boost sqrt(-1): Jim Carson, reloaded: This one goes to eleven. — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:08:22 +0000

[...] last week’s ride, I hit the limits of my GPS‘ ten to eleven hours of internal battery capacity. So, with it [...]

By: jim

jim — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:57:52 +0000

Woodstock - This wheel and I have a history. It’s now “swimming with the fishes.”

Kiri - You are reading it correctly. The fireman washing the truck seemed puzzled why I was frantically digging my camera out of my bike bag. (Or, perhaps, why anyone would be purposely biking in the muck ;-)

By: Kiri

Kiri — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:23:54 +0000

I’m sorry it didn’t work out! But of course you got through with enough of a positive attitude to be able to observe (and report on) other entertaining dramas. Whee!

Tell me I’m reading that -196 F in the image incorrectly?

By: woodstock

woodstock — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:48:35 +0000

I think I’m not using my bike hard enough. The worst I’ve ever done is pop a tire on a curb.

Glad to know you had an enjoyable time despite the spokeyness.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:26:06 +0000

Claire - the spindly spokes (versus legs) was ironic. But, I was very pleased at feeling as well as I did that late into the ride. Lynne - thanks. I saw some of your photos on Flickr and am curious what you carry in your bag/what you find useful. I want to be more prepared next time ;-) Sally - what John said. On a 36-spoke wheel, the loss of one spoke would cause a slight wobble, but I could have tied it off and continued riding. With the 24-spoke one, the wheel had an uneven spot where it moves about 1 1/2 inches out of true (unless contained by the brake). It's very unstable with any side loads like turns.

By: John

John — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:51:44 +0000

Sally- Each spoke carries a percentage of the total load. When riders like me are “a total load”, you need more spokes to shoulder the burden. Here’s what happened to my 1st set of 24 spoke wheels.

By: Sally

Sally — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:44:02 +0000

Why are 24-spokes bad?

By: Lynne

Lynne — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:42:01 +0000

I’d have gladly given you my fiber-fix spoke, but I guess we didn’t intersect at the store. Sorry.

By: Claire

Claire — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:27:25 +0000

Lynne F. told me that you were DNF - now I know why. It’s not from a lack of stoutness of leg, it was due to spindly spokes.

By: John

John — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:58:34 +0000

The way that personal debt accounting works in this family is that a long-distance rescue as you describe could be paid off by a.) flowers, b.) dinner for two, or c.) all of the above.

A three-day weekend to ride in Pendleton, Oregon requires jewelry.

If you have occasion to use a fiber-fix spoke, remove it yourself before dropping your wheel at the shop. The guys at my LBS had not seen one before, so they just cut it off and threw it away.