Ride for Saturday, 05 January

Rode down to the Farmer's Market to do my weekly shopping. Before I left I noted my rear rim was starting to look rather worn and resolved to pick up a new rim next week. On my way back, I started feeling a bump from the rear and suspected it was a broken spoke, but when I pulled over to check I found the rim had actually split - a nice 2 inch long gash in the rim, with 8km still to go to get home. I put the heavy panniers on the front wheels and the light ones on the back, and did a quick fiddle with the brake cable to let it out so the brake pad wouldn't catch on the gash. I limped home, risking the bumpy firetrail rather than riding on the road so I could ride more slowly - which was in itself risky as the heavy front-end kept trying to bury itself in the snow on the trail. I managed to get home without incident and went down to IdealBikes where Mike had promised me he had a 36 hole DM18 rim in stock for me. Unfortunately... it turned out to be a 32H and Mike cursed the lack of labelling done by a certain junior member of staff. Mike went digging in the basement and found a complete wheel that was missing an axle and housing and said I could have that, and only charged me for the rim. I managed to cobble together an axle and housing that just about fit and spent the weekend rebuilding the wheel to a high tension and replacing all the other worn components on my bike (brake pads, chain and one of the sprockets).

Distance logged: 25.047km
Time: 95:39
Average speed: 15.7km/hr
Max speed: 49 km/hr
Temperature: -6C to -3C
Cumulative distance: 115.634km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.17
Monthly distance: 115.634km
Monthly cost per km: $0.17