Thursday, April 12, 2007

Aye, that's the rub !

The first major task after getting to the hotel, after detours to Brueggers and Starbucks for lunch, was to put my bike together. Despite TSA, a long flight, and getting shoved upside-down into our rental, the bike case came out in good shape.

It had been suggested that I try getting the bike in with the back wheel on. To do this, I had to take the front break pads off (it still didn't fit). My last two tasks involved reseating the headset, which is one of two or three tasks I can do, but would prefer not to do, and reseating the front breaks.

Despite the fact that my breaks were wide open, I was still rubbing on the wheel. I looked at them and decided they'd been placed too high. i lowered them. I spun the wheel and watched. No contact- and still a rubbing noise. Well, there are only two things a front wheel can rub against- the breaks, or the fork. I got down lower, spun the wheel, and sure enough, the tire on my Zipp wheel is not quite perfectly glued and has a bulge (?). Barely noticeable. Also barely rubbing, which means rubbing. At the top arc of the fork....

I played with the exact seating of the wheel, the way the skewers tightened, and managed to get it to stop, but...rubbing ? Aye, there's the rub, and it's on my fork. Just a little bit disquiting.

Weather update: wind-storm while I was riding. 40 mph gusts, dirt everywhere, and then light rain and noticably colder...

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