Day 52 – Back to the Grind

Lizard Head Pass to Dolores, Co – 51 miles

I woke up today to the beautiful mountain views at the top of Lizard Head Pass.  Caroline and Jeff were tearing down their tent, so I decided to get up.  I started to pack up, said bye to Jeff and Caroline, and was on the bike by 10 am.  Although it was a late start it wasn’t too hot.  The sun was strong and there weren’t any clouds, but it was a little cooler than previous days.  Perhaps it was due to the elevation, but it seemed to be that way all day.

From the beginning of the day it was pretty much all downhill since we camped up on a mountain pass at over 10,000 ft.  I didn’t seem to be keeping as much speed as I usually do on downhills, so a couple of hours into the day I check my wheels.  Sure enough my rear wheel was rubbing on the brake pad.  After inspecting the spokes I found a broken one and a very loose one that were causing my wheel to be out of true.  It probably happened when I rode up to Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride.  I was hitting it pretty hard on the ride down and the road was rough.

I’ve never replaced a spoke on a wheel before and I didn’t have any cell service, so YouTubing it wasn’t an option.  I brought a few spare spokes with me, so with few other options I decided to dive in and give it my best shot.  I pulled the wheel off.  Deflated the tire and pulled the tread and tube off.  Underneath the rim tap was the old spoke.  Pulled it out.  When I went to thread the new spoke in at the inner hub it kept running into the rear cog (multi-gear chain ring thing), so I started trying to figure out how to remove it.  I vaguely recalled needing a special took to get it off, but kept trying anyways.  Eventually, I pulled the axle out thinking that might do it.  Bad idea.  I started losing ball bearings everywhere!  It took awhile, but ultimately I was able to get them all back in place and the axle back in.  I can’t help but think I screwed something up putting it back together though.  At the very least I got a bunch of dirt in the bearing race which can’t be good and I still didn’t have the spoke in.

Quickly running out of options I went for the brute force method.  Knowing I had other spokes on hand, I bent the shit out of it and was finally able to thread it through.  Once I had it threaded through the inner part of the wheel I straightened it as best as possible and connected it to the outer wheel.  It straightened out pretty good once it got some tension on it.  I was able to remove most of the wobble in the tire by tightening particular spokes, but still had to loosen my brakes so it could spin freely.

Once I was back on the bike I decided to get to Delores, only about 15 miles away, and reevaluate the situation.  I went to a restaurant when I arrived to grab some food and wifi.  There is a bike shop in town here, but they’re closed on Mondays.  I decided to find a place to camp here in town and then hit the bike shop first thing tomorrow to get the bike fixed up.  From there the plan is to ride to Mesa Verde National Park.  Somewhat of a rough day back on the road, but I’m hopeful that tomorrow will be smoother!