Morning Ride

over 1 year ago (Edited)

new.things just finished a 35.07km ride, that lasted for 114 minutes.
This ride helped new.things burn 607.0 calories.

Description from Strava: @cycling Strava2hive got a little bit of rain, but then it cleared up nicely. My first broken spoke, so I just took it easy on the way home.

I was about half way in to my ride, the weather was clearing nicely when I hear a sharp cracking sound, usually it is just some seed pod or gravel getting squashed or pushed out under the wheel, but this felt immediately different. I stopped to have a look. A broken spoke, I have not had one before, it caused the wheel to buckle slightly and hit on the break pads every rotation.

I had a few bike tools with me or do I just ring @consciuoscat to pick me up, will I make it worse trying to ride it home?

In the end I rang for a lift but did not need it as I was able to get the bike rideable and cycled home but at a much slower pace.

It took me a while to work out what to do but the broken spoke came off the hub with out any tools or even taking the wheel off and I just needed to loosen the front brakes so they didn't rub.

There are a lot less spokes on bike wheels nowadays than from what I remember in my school days. I had many missing spokes on my childhood bikes and it never was a problem but picking up a bit of speed on a few down hills with this slight buckle and missing spoke had me a little worried.
Luckily the back break was still working well and I took it pretty easy.

There is a bit more to cycling than running, the bike maintained and repairs is sort of part of the sport. My first thought was just to take the wheel to the bike shop and get them to fix it and this is properly the best option when I am time poor and earning good money but I have been enjoying some extra time at home lately so I might have a look into trying to fix it my self. My Felt time trial bike is more than a few years old now, maybe I should do all the spokes? and I wonder how hard it is to tension and adjust all the spokes so there is no buckle or wobble?