Scottish Trip - yet another tale of high mileage and rims that are not what
they are cracked up to be!
by Mark Brazier
I must make sure I get things better organised before I do any more of these intensive crazy long distance cycle rides. This is what was going through my mind in the garden of Lochranza youth hostel on the island of Arran two weeks ago as I discovered yet another cracked rim, this time in the rear rim of a hand built MTB wheel. The day before Anne and I had ridden loaded up with panniers to Bicester for the train to London, later that day the sleeper took us to Glasgow where in the morning we caught the train to Wemyss Bay, for the first of 4 ferry crossings that day this one on to the island of Bute. Finally that day finishing up with the superb crossing from Claonaig on Kintyre to Arran, I resolved to check out the back wheel as it had been behaving unusually since leaving Munsley, often pulling over onto the brakes under load, a problem that seemed to be getting worse.
Cleaning up the wheel, I soon discovered the crack where a spoke was pulling the wheel apart, these were wheels that had done less than 3000 miles since new and I remembered the trouble they had caused last year in Scotland when the front wheel had distressed itself and needed a roadside rebuild on a very wet day, marvellous wheels ha ha, what a waste of £200.
That evening as we mulled things over in the pub it seemed like an expensive return journey south could be on the cards.
The following day a phone call to Brodick Cycles 15 miles away over the mountain road established he had some mtb wheels that could help us out, we rode over, this was another nail biting ride, not helped by the descent off the top of the pass, and the appalling road surface.
At Brodick Cycles we were given fantastic help, we were able to buy a reasonable quality rear wheel, but also the owner let me use his bike workshop to install the new wheel, not the easiest of jobs without the right set up. Anne cut up the old wheel with bolt cutters to recover the XT hub, this was put in the post back to Munsley. Within an hour we were back on the road, and were able to carry on with our plans. The rest of that day saw us complete 2 traverses of the hilly interior of Arran plus a run around the coast back to Lochranza.
The following day we returned to the mainland for a hard ride up the coast to Oban. Seven thirty am the following morning we were on the ferry to Tiree, where a quieter day followed cycling around the island before returning to Oban that evening.
The final day of the trip was across to Mull on the first ferry of the day, around the northwest tip of the island, excruciatingly hilly, before catching the ferry to Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan peninsular. Our final destination that day was Fort William where we caught the sleeper back to London, before riding home the next day to Munsley.
During this week we cycled 600 miles in 7 days, mainly fully loaded, pretty tiring but very rewarding, so nearly wrecked by yet another cracked rim, which I'm sure I would have found if I had spent some time checking the bike over properly before we went
On return I did what I should have done before and put back the original wheels, on paper not such good quality but stronger and less likely to collapse under load.
Cleaning up the wheel, I soon discovered the crack where a spoke was pulling the wheel apart, these were wheels that had done less than 3000 miles since new and I remembered the trouble they had caused last year in Scotland when the front wheel had distressed itself and needed a roadside rebuild on a very wet day, marvellous wheels ha ha, what a waste of £200.
That evening as we mulled things over in the pub it seemed like an expensive return journey south could be on the cards.
The following day a phone call to Brodick Cycles 15 miles away over the mountain road established he had some mtb wheels that could help us out, we rode over, this was another nail biting ride, not helped by the descent off the top of the pass, and the appalling road surface.
At Brodick Cycles we were given fantastic help, we were able to buy a reasonable quality rear wheel, but also the owner let me use his bike workshop to install the new wheel, not the easiest of jobs without the right set up. Anne cut up the old wheel with bolt cutters to recover the XT hub, this was put in the post back to Munsley. Within an hour we were back on the road, and were able to carry on with our plans. The rest of that day saw us complete 2 traverses of the hilly interior of Arran plus a run around the coast back to Lochranza.
The following day we returned to the mainland for a hard ride up the coast to Oban. Seven thirty am the following morning we were on the ferry to Tiree, where a quieter day followed cycling around the island before returning to Oban that evening.
The final day of the trip was across to Mull on the first ferry of the day, around the northwest tip of the island, excruciatingly hilly, before catching the ferry to Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan peninsular. Our final destination that day was Fort William where we caught the sleeper back to London, before riding home the next day to Munsley.
During this week we cycled 600 miles in 7 days, mainly fully loaded, pretty tiring but very rewarding, so nearly wrecked by yet another cracked rim, which I'm sure I would have found if I had spent some time checking the bike over properly before we went
On return I did what I should have done before and put back the original wheels, on paper not such good quality but stronger and less likely to collapse under load.