Maintenance day

After the ride to Tantallon, my rear wheel was way out of true, so far that I felt leery about riding it to the bike shop to get it trued. Not wanting to have to endure another car ride (and having another bike now anyway), I figured there was nothing to lose in doing it myself. I read a few web pages, and it seemed pretty straightforward; I took off the tyre, tube and rim tape (then cleaned out the accumulated chunks of salt), flipped the bike over, ran some electrical tape across the forks, and stuck a piece of cardboard either side of the rim. I then slowly spun the wheel and moved the pieces of cardboard closer until they were scraping against the rim where it was out of true. After that, it was just a matter of tightening the two spokes on the opposite side of the spoke that was closest to the point on the rim where it was out of true - much easier than all the sites that waffle on about the "art and science of wheel truing" and how mystical it all is. I found it all rather tedious, but I suppose I can see how with some appropriate painkillers it might be one way to pass some time. Hopefully the wheel won't implode next time I'm out riding as a result of my work, though!

After that, I took out the wheel and took the opportunity to clean off the rear derailleur and brakes, then reassembled everything, wiped all the dried mud off the frame and cleaned the chain. There was nothing much else that needed doing, surprisingly enough, so I left it at that.