The Bike of Doom

After arriving at clear lake, unpacking the car, and swimming with the kids for an hour, I took the SC1800 for a ride. All the way up here, I’d been regretting taking it. I’d been thinking of the types of rides I could do up here, all of them either very rough or demanding so much torque on the drive train (steep hills) that the BOD was likely to be fail… not spectacularly, but in that grinding, creaking, popping way that cheap machinery has of going to meet its maker. Why didn’t I bring the Giant Boulder, a perfect bike for this place? On a 33 Km round trip spin from Thunderbird Cabins, along the abandoned road to the Golf Course, climbing past the Glen Beag picnic area (Oh, my God) in granny gear, then taking the North Shore highway around to the Aspen Picnic ground on Lake Audey road, I proved myself right. On the way back, despite nothing too rough, the SC1800’s back wheel started to wobble. Two spokes broken. I managed to ride the next 10 Km back to camp without a problem. Repaired the wheels. Had a hell of a time getting the freewheel off without a pipe to give leverage on the freewheel remover bolt. Finally had to use a long-handled lug wrench that did the job after application of inhuman strength… luckily I had some in reserve. Pumped up the tire to the punctuation of a boom as the tube shredded.

Damn it. The edge of the tire was damaged, and had slipped the rim, allowing the tire to extrude and, of course, explode. Same problem I had with the earlier tire. Is it a tire problem, a rim problem, or an air pressure problem? Is it possible that the original tires on Mike’s Raleigh Rocky weren’t much better than the tires on the SC1800? Or is there something weird with the SC1800 cheapo rims that cuts into the lip of tires? I checked recommended air pressure again and noted the range of 40 to 50 PSI. So why, I wondered, have I been keeping it topped at 55 PSI? Did I misread somewhere? Oh, wait, those were the old tires! Had a spare tube, so no sweat. Replaced it, pumped to appropriate PSI. We’ll see how it goes. I may end up having to pay for tires anyway, despite Bike With Mike’s generous donation of eight-year-old, used MTB tires. If I do, I’ll get reasonably good ones, Continental commuters with a nice road bead, Kevlar sheath, etc. Yeah.

Related posts:

BOD on Holiday — August 9 to 11 — 8.58 Km

BOD on Holiday — August 7 — 3.8 Km

First time here?