I rode from work to my mother's place to visit her. On the way, a spoke in my rear wheel broke, and instantly, my rear wheel was too wobbly to turn. This wheel gave me trouble a couple of years ago, and I replaced all the drive-side spokes. Now it's time to replace the non-drive spokes. I think I'll use a different rim, too, because this one is too soft. It went way too far out of true from the loss of just one spoke, and there are 36 spokes.

I carry a multi tool, and it has a spoke wrench built into it, but it does not make for fast work. I loosened the spokes on each side of the broken one to reduce the wobble. I got it to the point where it didn't rub the frame on either side. It started out rubbing on both sides. I disconnected the rear brake so the wheel wouldn't rub that. By the time I was done, the bike rode fine and didn't feel off in any way.

After visiting my mother's place, I rode home on Columbus and Ninth Avenues, not my usual route. It was really treacherous because there are so many wrong-way cyclists. I can't count how many I encountered. I think I'll take up a complaint with the city. If they want ridership to increase without an increase in accidents, they'll have to do something about this. It has become out of hand. Too many people think IT'S JUST FINE AND DANDY TO RIDE AGAINST TRAFFIC. But I get honestly scared of a collision. Not a fatal or even serious one, but I'm working too hard to avoid a collision. There is no protocol for encountering an oncoming cyclist in close quarters, so we both have to guess whether to move left or right, and the final decision happens when we are much too close to each other. We need to get the word out that this is NOT OK.

Route from work to Mom's where I broke a spoke

Route from Mom's to home with all the wrong way cyclists