Since I had not broken a spoke in three days of more and more brisk flat riding, I headed for the hills to do some gentle climbing. Well, I didn't get too far above Stanford, on Junipero Serrra, when almost to Sand Hill, I had a pretty vicious spoke break. On a gentle ascent, just above the golf course, I heard the metal ping as the broken spoke started thrashing my legs.
This was brand new for me on the Eagle, as the broken spokes before had all been ones where the tie and solder connection was still in place. However, with the random way I've been trying to augment Jeff's work by getting spokes to just fill the gaps, the cross pattern is not consistent so I have not ben tieing them off. Hmm, maybe I will now.....
As such when I got back, I silver soldered the broken spoke back together using a modern bicycle spoke as a splint. And then having found some extra nipples, I decided to make a another spoke from the stock of broken ones I've ben accumulating. And now I am down to only two spokes missing. I may build them up tomorrow, And in lie of tieing and soldering, I will just use zip ties!
Truing the wheel was next. And as I am able to fill in more of the gaps, the wheel is actually getting straighter and straighter!! It will never hold up to either side of an 8 to 11K foot mountain pass, but I can train on it locally with hopefully light hill work until something better develops.......
You see until the insurance gets me into something cross country worthy, this is what I have to work with, And I'd like to do the SF Critical Mass on Friday where hills are San Francisco.......
If I can make this work, 'ain't nothing mechanical 'gonna stop me from getting to Boston.......
THX 4 all of U!!
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