Bend and Bending wheels

Last weekend I went down to Bend and had more fun than you did. It was 60 degrees, blue bird skies, and I got a nice little tan. On top of that , all the trails were dry, dusty, and fast as hell. It was like we drove three hours away from rainy dreary Portland and arrived in Southern California.

The only catch is, when it gets dry and fast, you ride a lot faster. And when you ride faster, you're harder on your equipment. And when some of your equipment is old as hell and is hanging on by a thread, sometimes that extra speed is all it takes to push your equipment over the top.

Which reminds me, Over the top is a great Motorhead song.






Here's my totally thrashed wheel for your viewing pleasure. If you look carefully, you can spot the four silver spokes that had already been replaced:



This wheel was pretty out of true. But, after turning it from a 36 spoke to a 32 spoke wheel in about 5 runs, it was a little worse for wear.






This photo's awesome, because this photo was not taken with a fisheye lens.






So I ended up riding the wheel for the whole day, then Sunday too. I even did a 30 foot gap for the first time on this wheel.




So I rode a wheel that was ready to explode. What's the worst that could have happened, right?