Broken Spokes

August 31st, 2008; 4:16 AM

Current mood:blissful

I fixed my bike today. Apparently I had a few broken spokes. And my back tire wasn't *true* (meaning: that it wobbled and rubbed on my brakes, making the ride hard and uncomfortable.) I know I heard one spoke break when I was going over that rough stretch of road with all of the potholes on it..I was laiden down with the most mail I've ever had to carry. I had both panniers filled to the brim, and even unzipped with the tops of large envelopes sticking out. Nothing was going to fall out..but it was too much to zip in. I think the combo of heavy me + heavy bike + full load of panniers + potholes + long distance + old bike = too much friction and tension on my bike and resulted in a broken spoke. I had the option of repairing the broken spokes but knowing that my wheel would always wobble...or for a bit more just get a new wheel, which would be perfect. I did the latter. My new wheel had to have a bit of fabrication work done on it because my bike is so old that the new quick release tires are not the same...blablabla..story of my life. I hopped on my bike when he was done, and rode home. It was such a different ride. I realized that my back wheel was probably out of alignment for a while and progressively got worse. It was so nice and easy to ride now, that I had to laugh with the sheer joy of the new experience. I loved it. I had a good ride around. In fact I didn't go straight home because I was having so much fun.