Broken Wheel Ride

Originally planned as an 86-mile loop from our house, this ride was abruptly ended at the 54-mile mark due to a broken wheel.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 54 miles   Elevation Gain: 3,567 feet   Average Moving Speed: 13.90 mph

Don't worry, the break wasn't catastrophic. In fact, if you are going to break your wheel I recommend doing it this way:

First, while riding you should notice a minor thump-thump-thump sound that, based on your previous experiences, makes you think your tire probably has a minor bulge and could burst at any moment. You will ignore this, putting your head in the proverbial sand.

Second, after riding for miles and miles through locations that are both inconvenient for long breaks and have poor to no cell coverage, arrive in a small town and pull into any convenient fast food restaurant. In our case it was a Jack-in-the-Box in Washougal, Washington.

Refill your water bottles as needed, of course, and then try to get on your bike and start moving. When your rear wheel won't rotate because the tire itself is, for some reason, pressed firmly against the left chainstay, investigate further. You will notice it only rubs on part of the rotation, not the whole revolution of the wheel. Take the wheel off and spin it in your hands and you will see it wobble. It must be a spoke. Look carefully at the spokes. All spokes are in excellent shape. Have someone, perhaps your lovely wife, hold the wheel skewer while you spin it ever so slowly, flicking each spoke with your finger and listening for one that sounds different. Ting. Ting. Ting. Thud. There, that one. Look closer. Wait for it, wait for it, there it is! The actual hub is busted where it connects to that spoke. This can be seen in all three pictures here.

It is at this point that you realize this wheel is not really fixable. It might be possible to start messing with the adjacent spokes (and in turn, their adjacent spokes, and so on) in order to temporarily re-true the wheel just enough to get moving again. Or not. But in your vast wheel truing experience (which totals exactly one wheel, and exact is a very poorly chosen word), you know your best bet is to make that phone call, and hope somebody answers so you don't have to fight with a wheel for 32 more miles. Not fun no matter how you slice it, and could be an unwinnable battle.

When somebody, by the name of Paul, for example, does answer and graciously comes to pick up you and your lovely wife, his daughter, you will at this point experience a deep sense of gratefulness. You will also realize that had Paul (or your own personal ride rescuer, since we are doing this from your perspective) not been available you would have been on your own. Therefore, you should carry something more than just a little cash on rides that place you some distance from home. You need a credit card or some means to be able to go into a bike shop and buy whatever you might need to get you home those remaining miles.

If you are an Oregon AAA Plus member you can give them a ring and they will provide roadside assistance for bicycles. I just checked and Washington AAA members are out in the cold, bike-wise. I tried to have my WA membership transferred to OR but could not as I my residence is in WA. There is another option: Better World Club offers roadside assistance for bicycles. We may do this. Not sure if we'll do auto and bike coverage (dropping AAA entirely), or just continue with AAA for auto and BWC for bike-only coverage. Will require some thought.

Another lesson learned. It is evident that our ride-ending incidents so far have all been quite providentially orchestrated, which is supremely cool, aside from the whole ride-ending aspect of it, that is. The one where we flatted all four tires, multiple punctures in each tire, was across the street from a Starbucks. The unfixable blowout (after several boot attempts) Amy experienced at the end of the Daffodil Classic only required a little waiting on her part while I finished the last couple miles of the ride, got the car, and came back to get her. And just a week or two ago we experienced another failed tire boot job, which was literally a mile away from Amy's parents' house. Of course we would much rather not experience these problems, but so far they are occurring at excellent locations, and the tire boot repair jobs have worked when we really needed them to work.

As for the ride itself? Well, we both paced ourselves for an 86-mile ride with three big climbs, so having it cut short by 32-miles, including the third and final climb, was disappointing. In fact one of us, and I won't mention any names here, was pretty upset at the other, for some reason, until he/she was finally convinced it wasn't my fault.

Amy was back to her usual tricks, riding ahead of me on the two nice climbs we did get to enjoy. But not too far ahead so as to be by herself should there be another dog incident. I'd like to think that she isn't holding back at all, as I am in much better shape than usual by this time of year what with all of my Riding in the Rain. She is very diplomatic about this, however, so I'm guessing she is holding back considerably, but not saying as much. This is probably why she was so disappointed that the ride was cut short. She had lots left in those legs and was thoroughly enjoying these real climbs (she likes long sustained grades, not the rollers and short climbs we usually train on).

Anyway, staying close to me on climbs worked nicely for her at one point, when all of a sudden there was a big dog (like a malamute but bigger, wolf-sized, unless they are already wolf-sized dogs?) standing on the road on our left. Amy was just ahead of me. The dog seemed puzzled. Not friendly. But not aggressive either. Yet. I'm not sure why, but I said something like "Hey there boy!" in my most friendly voice possible as I rode by. It was either that or the prey-chasing-instinct that kicked in as we rode by (clearly looking like wounded fawns or something) because he started chasing us and even added a little growling. Thankfully, by this time there was a car approaching from behind. Yes, occasionally, traffic is downright helpful! He gave up, even though he could have easily chomped any part of me if he'd wanted. Going up hill I just didn't have the speed to unclick-and-kick like I've done before. Thinking back, his growl was really more of a playful growl than a serious one. Not that I like to hear any growl at all in that situation, mind you.

We were happy to get in 54 miles, but would have preferred the whole ride. In the map below the red/purple line is our actual route, and the blue line is the route we would have taken to finish the ride. We may add another loop further east next time (the easternmost loop on this ride) making it a full century and adding more climbing. We shall see.

RIDE MAP IN GOOGLE EARTH:

Maps showing all rides: 2012 • 2011 • 2010 • 2009 • All Rides