I hope the environment appreciates how much a pain building this bike was...

*growl*

So a month or two ago, I fell on the surly and bent in the rear rim, requiring buying it burly wheels... So I got some 36 spoke rims laced onto shimano XT hubs...

And yesterday, it was bright and sunny when I was biking home to get lunch... and since the weather's been raining non stop lately and was supposed to start raining again in the afternoon, I decided I was going to ride the perimeter trail around base.. 'cause I'd heard there was a paved fitness path around and had never actually tried it...

So I bike along, scare the hell out of some poor women walking (I came up beside them on the grass ... I'd shifted gears coming up so I'm not sure how they didn't hear me, but one woman screamed and jumped to the other side of the path,hugging her friend.... and seriously, I was like 3 feet from her)

And I have a nice ride on the path, and at some point the path ends and I'm riding along the road... a car is coming up behind me and there's a grate in the road in front of me, so I decide to just ride over the grate & not swerve out to avoid it because of the car...

What I don't realize or didn't catch was that the stupid grate had it's rails perpendicular to the road, not horizontal and the spacing between the grating was bigger than my tires...

So I ride over it and the bike drops down, there's a massive kerchunk and my wrists were not happy with the impact they're absorbing... but I get over the grate, don't fall, and it takes me a second to realize what happened...

So I keep biking and I start feeling a rhythmic feel when I use the rear brake, much like it did when I dented the last rim inwards....

And I'm thinking there is no way that I've wrecked another stupid wheel... It must just be out of true.

But I looked at it more closely today, at one spot in the rim, it bows out on both sides.

I'm hoping I can maybe put a clamp on the rim and get it flat... maybe sand it a bit if I have to and get it true afterwards...

I'm not sure the surly, rear wheels, and I get along.

I'm beginning to wonder about you...I do hope your wrists are ok, though.

It's the flames I tell you!

I took a lot of ibuprofen... managed to get out for a ride today & took my carbon road bike which is my most wrist friendly. The right one's angry at me, but not too badly.

I think I just gotta start treating the surly like the rest of my road bikes, where I'm too chicken to ride them over anything.

The bf told me I need to get some bike handling skills. Apparently, I should have hopped over the grate.

Or been smart enough to realize that it was a parallel grate (I've never seen a grate parallel to the road, so I didn't even think...)

It I can't get it flat, I guess I'll just buy a new rim and learn how to change a rim. I should lay in a little stockpile at this rate.

Ouch.
You're lucky you didn't crash. Parallel grates can be beyond hazardous to a cyclist.
I totalled a rim on the rear wheel of my old Seven on a parallel grate. It pinched the rim in on the tube (and popped two before I realized it! :rolleyes:). I had to replace the rim and get new spokes (I think). A big P.I.A., but fortunately, I didn't crash.
STAY AWAY from those danged things. Take the lane if you must.
Glad you are unhurt.

Ah well... now I know to look out for those things. I very sensibly swerved to avoid the one that was about 100 feet after the first.

In retrospect I'm surprised I managed to bike over it at all... And I'm glad it was on the surly 'cause I woulda cried if I did it on my other bikes, I'd expect they'd not have done as well.

I'm going to call the base provost and find out who to complain to about those 2 grates... Because that is pretty retarded and if that's their fitness circuit they should really make it non-hazardous to cyclists.

the spokes looked fine - the rim's kinda bowed out on either side probably in an area that's less than a finger across.. I'm hoping that if I cut a piece of wood to fit in the rim, and then put a flat piece of wood or aluminum across either side of it, I can put a clamp across it and bend them inwards & flat.

I'm not thrilled at the idea of buying another new rim for it now, but I probably will eventually end up doing that. either way, it sounds like I got off lighter than you did with your seven - I hope you weren't hurt.

There were 2 areas on the rim where the wheel was dented in some and the rim was bent out on either side. We managed to flatten out the rim, the wheel's true... it's not quite round, but I'll ride it for a while to see how it does.

I don't see anyone selling the rim I have - it's a 622x19 rim that's pretty burly, seems to be a european company. I emailed the place on ebay that I bought the wheel from on ebay to see if they had any extra rims.

The bf thought I'd've snapped any other rim in half.

At the beach this weekend, I found sunglasses to go with my surly. I'm set now.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_SemWMoaWfp4/TF...0/IMGP8383.JPG

i missed this whole thread! your bike looks nice... you like it enough now?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Biciclista

i missed this whole thread! your bike looks nice... you like it enough now?

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I do. It hasn't thrown me off in a while. It's got soma sparrow handlebars on it now. I love the bike, I just wish the top tube was about 20 cms longer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Catriona

At the beach this weekend, I found sunglasses to go with my surly.

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They are perfect. It's a sign, a portent, an omen. You can never get rid of the Flaming Surly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zen

They are perfect. It's a sign, a portent, an omen. You can never get rid of the Flaming Surly.

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I told you that about your mariposa, then your fickle heart chose Miss Plum.

Ocassionally, I think about selling the surly - but it's a bit too fun still. I may have to get a custom black frame to replace the surly frame someday :) With the right size top tube.

But I'll update the thread with the surly as it is now and I'll have to get pics of me riding the bike with the sunglasses.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_fkR1_xTH524/TF...0/IMGP3922.JPG