Friday, May 11, 2007

My Busted Rim and Hub...

I thought this was such a great addition to my friends and mine already large list of cycling mishaps, that I couldn't resist posting this on our blog. To All of Melinda's Friends, sorry for boring you with more "guy stories", you can stop reading now. But hey, why else would a bunch of out of shape dudes go on mountain bike rides for... So, I have more info about the Hub, since I mentioned it in our "Pictures From Around Town" post when I ask Frank to send me a used Hub, which is not code for anything, other than: Send me an international gift of no value that consists of one, rear mountain bike hub, sans cassette. Here's the story... You know my Trek 7000... Yeah, the Frankenstein Bike... We'll the last time I took the Trek out I must have hit some rocks pretty hard (I think we were riding in Wissahickon Park) cause the rim is ALL dented (in three spots). I started to true the wheel before Mel and I went for a ride last week to Liestal. While I was truing the wheel, I noticed that two of the spokes were pulling through the rim!!! You heard it. The rim is a Mavic 217, with eyelets. I thought for sure the spokes would have broken or stretched before this would happen. This is the rebuilt wheel from the one I road on for 10 miles and destroyed during the race at Bucknell in college... Once the rim was true, I gave it a good spin, and it seemed nice(r) than it was. As it spun, I noticed a white line/stripe on the hub, which is painted black and is quite dirty. After inspection, the hub has a major crack 2/3 down the length of it!!! I think I am going to try to contact American Classic and Mavic to try to get a replacement since this should not happen with this type of equipment, but in the mean time, I'm using my Yeti wheel on my beater Trek, which actually works well considering it's a 9 speed wheel on a 7 speed set up. Check out these pics...
The Rim...

In Greater Detail... notice the cracks...

This is what a normal spoke looks like...

This is what the damaged one looks like...
More damage elsewhere on the rim...

Yep, more cracking...

The Hub...

This is not normal...

More detail...






Melinda has to interject here, sorry...

(For everyone who has absolutely NO interest in biking, bikes and any other form of two wheels, I apologize that you had to suffer throught this post. For all the Drexel guys who are utterly thrilled with such a post, I am sure you will enjoy my daisy and pink stuff post to come....)

1 comment:

Frank said...

Never fear: A used Hub is on the way.

BTW for anyone else reading this, we old skoolers refer to that bike as "Old Blue."

Old Blue should be through into the Rhine, by the way.