Sunday was a bit of let down bike-wise. After a busy day of this and that I was all set for a couple of hours ride in the lovely Hilo afternoon sun. I made it about 5 minutes down the road.
First let me say this isn’t the fault of the fellow who sold me the bike. It’s a used bike, sold as such, with no guarantees. In addition it would be possible to do exactly the same thing with a new wheel if it weren’t of good quality.
What happened?
Well I started off down the road and decided to take a little detour on the old Honoli’i road. I’ve some family that lives down that way so I’m familiar with the road and thought it would be a nice, short, detour.
Unfortunately for me the road I needed to go on starts with a steep incline which brought me out of my seat. I must have twisted the bars a little too much and taco’d my front wheel. Sigh. I think it would have been fine with the hand-built wheels on my Quickbeam but these old guys were about shot as it was.
With a taco’d wheel I had to head home, luckily only about a half mile, but uphill.
Today, before I came home to Honolulu I stopped by All Kine Bicycles in Hilo where I got this lovely beast and BIll gave me a brand new used wheel from the dungeon. It’s actually in much better shape and will probably last until I can get a new set of wheels on there. Thanks Bill.
I discovered a few things about my bike…
The front forks are 96mm apart, the rear measurement is 120mm. I’m thinking of getting a 126mm wheel so I can go up to a 6 or 7 speed freewheel. Harris Cyclery has a set for about $125, $150 with shipping. I’m not sure it’s worth getting Rich from Riv to build me a set of wheels at this point. It’s supposed to be bike for the Big Island I don’t have to worry about too much…it’s turning into something else I suppose.
Aloha!
Slower, cheaper, less useful…