Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Bicycle Maintenance

Jim (http://planetary-gears.blogspot.com or http://hiawathacyclery.com) was right, tires do stretch over time. I bought from him a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires in 700x42mm and mounted them on my Quickbeam early April.    At the time that I mounted them, I was somewhat disappointed that the tires didn't measure up to their specifications.  I had plenty of room for clearance under my fenders.

Fast-forward a few months and thousands of miles and the tires have stretched considerably.  Enough to more than fill the available clearance under the Berthoud 50mm fenders.  The result has been rubbing to the point where rubber has accumulated on the frame and parts of the tires have that "shaved off by the lathe like effects of the rubbing fenders."  

You see, I've known about this problem for a few weeks now.  The ride it every day, neglect it until the last conceivable moment of "preventative maintenance" program that I use to keep my commuter rideable caught up with me this morning.  While pouring some oil on the chain, I realized just how much interference there was on the rear wheel, it was hardly turning.

In a last-minute ham-fisted attempt at fender "adjustment" I knocked the bike over.  In the fall, the rear fender collided with the recycling bin, spilled the contents and broke the fender stay for the rear fender.  A little bicycle surgery this morning to remove the fenders (thus solving the interference issue) I was off to work even later than I had been.

Lesson learned: clearance is a good thing, new fender stay will be required, but more importantly, tires stretch and Jim was right.

1 comment:

Jim Thill said...

Once in awhile I make a lucky guess. Eventually your fender would have stretched, probably.

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