Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1841:
Well, so far it's been a day of questionable decisions. lol
34°F this morning when I left the house, but the temp is supposed to continuously drop throughout the day until it gets down to the single digits tonight. Plus, there's a wind advisory. A 25 mph constant north wind with gusts much higher made for a surprisingly chilly 8 mile ride to work. Knowing the temps will continue to drop, and that I'll be fighting the wind on the way home made me question whether or not I should have just ridden to the client's office instead, which would have cut my commute in half and given me a tail wind on the way home.
Before I left this morning there was a 20% chance of snow. I decided that was low enough of a snow possibility that I rode the hybrid bike with regular tires. During my commute I noticed some light snow flurries being illuminated by my headlight. Now that I'm at the office the chance of measurable snow has gone up to 65%. So now I was questioning that I picked the right bicycle.
Ever have one of those periods of time where it seems like everything you own is breaking? I'm in one of those stretches right now. Everything from bike parts, to backpacks, to window blinds, to tub drains, and more. Makes me kind of afraid to touch anything!
Anyway, for those following my saga, last week I noticed the rear wheel on my hybrid bike was a little out of true so I straightened it out. Then two days later it went very out of true again, and two spokes had loosened enough to completely lose all tension. So I spent some time last Thursday evening tightening those spokes, checking all the other spokes, and truing the entire wheel. I had it adjusted nice and straight, and was proud of how true it was spinning if I do say so myself.
That was the bike I rode today, for the first time since my wheel adjustments. When I left the house it was riding very nice and smooth. About five miles down the road I thought I was feeling a little wiggle. At five and a half miles there was no doubt the wheel was wobbling, and the rim was rubbing against the brakes hard enough to make me work. I pulled over to inspect, and sure enough those same two spokes have lost all tension again. I'm not sure what is going on. This wheel has over 10k of hard miles on it, so maybe it's reaching end of life? I'm not sure. I didn't notice any cracks or other problems with the rim when I was retruing the wheel. I'm debating on whether it would be worth it to slacken all the spokes and retension the entire wheel, or just buy a new wheel.
I didn't have my spoke wrench with me to try and tighten things up again. To finish my ride to work I pulled the release on the rear brakes. This allowed the wheel to spin without rubbing, at the expense of only having front brakes. It still felt like a clown bike while I rode as the wheel was causing the whole bike to wobble.
Between the wheel wobble, the lack of rear brakes, the low temps, the crazy headwind and the potential for snow accumulation, I'm not super stoked about the ride back home.
