Thanks everyone - I decided not to ride it. Started riding down to the bike co-op to see if anyone was there but the wheel was getting worse and took my mtb for the first 15 miles and turned back. Fell down a flight of stairs and knee was getting worse struggling against the bike and the hills.
Last Sunday I went for an easy 50 miles, no problems. Tuesday I went for a ride and hammered for 40 miles, climbed some hard hills, pushed it on the flats. Kept hearing pinging sounds along the way. Before I went I stopped by the shop to get a new wheel since it was hard to get true and had a flat spot - he's hooking me up with a hand built one which I'm excited about. Should have been here Friday but there's a problem, blah, blah blah. I checked the wheels 20 miles before those two rides and there were no broken spokes so it happened on one of those two rides, my money's on the hard ride. Fast ride, uneasy road surface....
This is the bike I've been fixing
here and
here. It's been outside in the elements for at least 2-4 years and probably longer, it's over 20 years old, and has original wheels. So I'm not all that upset that the wheel started to implode. I find it funny I had the new one ordered first - sixth sense is funny that way
Sidenote, was reading my first thread about fixing it up and found this little ditty:
Originally Posted by Air
On the way over I heard some creaks coming from the rear wheel. When I checked sure enough there were about 8 spokes really loose. Tightened them and completely screwed up the trueness. Had to get a bit of help getting it to a rideable point (including slamming the rim on a table which surprisingly helped quite a bit to release tension) - will play with it more so I can concentrate on repacking the hubs and bb.
I forgot how many loose spokes there were - but I'd put money those 6 broken ones came from those original 8 ones
