Musical Spokes

Ever have one of those rides that wasn't meant to happen?

Tried to sneak out for an hour today; it was all the time I had. Decided on Purcell's Cove; a self-contained 1hr loop. Plus, with six/seven/eight climbs (depending on how you're counting) in ten kilometers it was going to be a good maintainence-ride for 'cross, which is nothing if not constantly going up and down like a demented two-wheel, pneumatically-tyred, white-knuckle ride roller-coaster.

At the far end of the loop, by the now rebuilt store in Herring Cove, a rear spoke went twang! Not so much due to my awesome power of my thighs as the awesome lardiness of my thighs. Grrr. It was drive-side, of course it was drive-side, it's always drive-side, so I wrapped it around a neighbouring spoke, slacked off the brake as much as I could (dared) and gingerly rode home. Of course, that was 15km or so into a head-wind with a rubbing back wheel doing the samba (the back wheel, not me).

You could say with the back end behaving quite unpredictably for 30 minutes, this was ideal 'cross preparation. Perhaps it was, but it was not what I had in mind!

This stuff happenswhen you ride bikes. It's happened to me before and it will doubtless happen again. So I can take it with equanimity; viz I'm not pissed off by this per se. It's a pretty cheap fix (as long as I remember to only buy a spoke when I'm in the shop). However, that doesn't mean I have to like it, or that it doesn't ruin a perfectly good ride when it happens.

Grrr.

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