Pas de Deux

The rear wheel on the tandem bike has been breaking spokes and spoke eyelets since shortly after we bought it (used). The spokes were breaking on the non-drive side. I'm not sure what that means. The drive side bears more stress. So, you would expect them to break on that side. I've been replacing the spokes one at a time when they break. But, I suspected the rim wasn't long for this world and had started looking for a replacement.

When Jensen and I went for our Saturday ride on 14 May, close to the halfway point the rear wheel felt mushy and wobbly. It was quit a bit out of true and there were a couple of breaks in the 'hip' of the rim at two spoke junctures. The tire had also gone low. We put air in and turned around for home. We only got about 2-3 miles before the tire was low again. So we put more air in and called Lenore to meet us at the Revolution bike shop.

The shop owner didn't have a 40 hole rim on hand for rebuilding the wheel. He was more than happy to sell me a new $600 wheelset. I was pretty sure I could solve this problem less expensively. My biggest problem was Jensen and I had been planning on doing the Cycle Salt Lake Century ride the following Saturday. So, I needed quick intervention.

I found a tandem specific rim online from a company in Denver. It is nice and strong (read hefty). It arrived on Wednesday. I had some time Weds night to try to put the wheel together. But, it ended up that the spokes I ordered were too long. I didn't do the math right. So, I didn't get the wheel together and back on the bike until 10pm Friday night. I would have liked to have a bike shop build it for me. But, they were all backed up on their repairs.