Prior to my ride today, noticed the rear wheel was out of true and rubbing a rear pad. Whipped out my trusty spoke wrench and gave the nipple a turn, and another and another and no bite. It just kept spinning. Argh. Don’t know if the threads on the nipple or spoke are stripped - but will leave that to my lbs. So, got out an old wheel and began the process of removing the rear gear set from the fubar wheel to the new/old wheel. It went fine except the high and low set screws for the rear mech had to be adjusted - no biggie. Got it set and a quick test ride to confirm all was good. Loaded the bike on the back of the car and drove a few miles to the starting point. When there, I realized I hadn’t aired the front tire and decided to try the mini pump I have been packing around for 3 years but never used it. Worked it like a teenage boy’s first love and the pressure was underwhelming. So got out a CO2 and valves head, which I had never used and it worked great. OK, now finally rolling.

Started off, hit a bump and heard metal rattling Hmmm. Maybe the saddle bag was hitting the seat post - nope. Hit another bump, checked the skewers and they were tight. Rode a bit further and more metal jangling. Reached down and the rear cogs were loose - but you already knew that. So ride back to the car, head home, remove wheel to see about 1mm of gap - eventhough the locking nut was tight. Since it’s been three years since I swapped the gears between wheels, I forgot that this wheel required an additional spacer - which I had. Whipped out the chain whip - again - added the spacer and the bugles of heaven sounded. So had to adjust the set screws, put the bike away and called it a day.

Ride stats - 2.5 miles and 49’ climbing. Max watts - 518 until things blew up. I logged the ride as a race and was rewarded with this: