Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Neaves Road practice TT and Westwood L2/L3


Yesterday I was out to Neaves Road on the TT bike. Did a practice 12km TT. Non-aero (other than TT bike.) Still managed about 40kph out and back.

Today I spent some time trying to get the road bike back on the road... I.e. get both wheels remounted with new tubes etc... The front was problematical. Immediately blowing up with two new tubes.. Obviously something wrong with the casing... So put a diferent one on and that seemed better. I had a new Bontrager X Lite Pro for the rear, so used the rear casing for the front.

Out for a ride and almost immediately another problem going downhill... the front almost blew up again! Before it did I managed to stop and let the air out and see what was happening. The casing was popping out and then the tube would push out and burst...

So back home with low pressure.. Close look at everything. It appears that the right front brake block may have been mis-aligned and possibly contacting the the tire casing when the brakes where applied. Which would match both the blowout on Sunday and todays almost blowout...

I'd blame the LBS except to use their vocabulary, this was a consumer installed option... :-(

Anyway. Re-aligned the brakes and back out.... Climbed and descended multiple hills for about an hour and a half without problem... So hopefully that was it.

I have another Bontrager X Lite Pro on order for the front. So that will get installed when it arrives to replace the pretty much beat up XXX Lite on the front. It got ridden on flat for about 4km on Sunday.. But does seem to hold the tube in better than the (presumably) damaged front casing.

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