Repairs

The life of a bicycle mechanic is one of constant diagnosis and figuring things out. There are simple repairs, which for a seasoned bicycle mechanic are like a school child repeating the addition of 2 + 2 and understanding the answer without a second thought. In fact, many repairs are done so quickly and with such instinct that many mechanics cannot tell you how to do what they just did where you'd understand. 

Then there are the really challenging jobs. The ones that make you cuss, but when you overcome and make a bicycle work again, you crow about it, sticking your chest out and strutting around like some greasy version of a rooster.

I was out riding around on the Honeman Flyer last week getting acquainted with these new Ergon bits I have in for review. As I pulled up to the house I heard a strange noise and I discovered a broken spoke. The sort of "everyday repair" a good mechanic can whip out done in a jiffy. 

When you work in a retail setting you must learn time saving tricks to get things done and out the door quickly. I was employing all of these as I went about trying to replace the rear spoke which had broken. 

Now one of the more important parts of this repair concerned the spoke nipple. It would be imperative to keep the nipple from backing into the rim cavity and falling inside the rim. 

And - of course - this is exactly what happened. 

Now this simple repair just became a big hassle. I would have to take the tire off, the rim tape off, and fish that nipple out of the rim cavity. And the tire is set up tubeless. So......sigh, I went to work on it. 

And when I peeled off the Ritchey SpeedMax tire, I discovered there was almost no sealant inside. So, actually, it was a good thing. But now I'd have to do the tubeless sealant injection dance later. Before that, I had to take the nipple I fished out, replace it where it belonged, thread it on the spoke, and tension it up. After truing I then fished around in my tape drawer for some tubeless tape. 

This DT Swiss tape is really nice.

I found a bit of this DT Swiss tubeless tape. I don't remember for certain how I got it. It wasn't a full roll and I know I've never used it before. I thought I'd use it up on this repair. 

It turns out it is excellent tape. Maybe the best I've used. It certainly was the easiest tape I've applied. Just stretchy enough and tacky enough. It laid down nicely with no weird folds or trapped air bubbles.  

It certainly is not cheap! But I may try some more of it since it was so impressive. I have some of the tape everyone was crowing about from U-Line which is similar to this DT Swiss tape, but it is not the same stuff at all. That tape is thicker, less pliable, and doesn't lay down as nicely. 

Anyway, after a bout of wrasslin' with my tubeless sealant injector, I was done with the job and the Honeman Flyer is ready just in time for a blizzard! Fantastic.... (Update - It wasn't a blizzard, but it did snow)

It'll be 1°F Tuesday morning here and swinging to a projected high of 50°F on Wednesday.  Welcome to Spring in Iowa.