DeRidder to Ville Platte (Flat Town) was an easy 75 miles without much in between. A few gas stations and gas station food was about it. The few restaurants we saw were closed.
Ville Platte to New Roads (we found New Roads) was more “interesting” because we went off the ACA Route and found some tough roads and nice locals. One of the locals (Tommy D.C.) was the grandson of a senator and gave us a lift in his pickup which saved us biking 4 miles of bridge with no shoulder, no alternatives and lots of traffic. Again the blessings of strangers. We also had some of the roughest roads/shoulders in weeks. My troublesome rear rim cracked some more, warped and the wheel started rubbing. I limped into New Roads and started calling bike shops 40 miles away in Baton Ruge. 5 bike shops, one had a rim, none could lace it in the next few days. Front Yard Bikes had a few rims but no time to build the wheel. I asked about using their truing stand and they said sure. Remember they are 40 miles away(one way) and my bike is not very rideable. I call the local Enterprise rental car (the only local rental car) and they have no cars. No Uber or Lyft, no local Taxi, I ask at the hotel desk and find a ride for a nominal fee. Again the blessings of strangers. I spent half the night watching videos on how to build wheels.
Today starts with a power outage over breakfast. Jim is going to hang around New Roads and I hitch a ride to Front Yard Bikes in Baton Ruge to test my first time wheel building skills. After I arrive we find a few possibilities as far as rims (New old stock and used) and settle on a narrower rim that has rivets reenforcing each spoke whole. I taped the old rim to the new rim and started moving spokes, a few of the Front Yard Bikes guys have not seen this trick before and at this point I am not thinking I will have much help building the wheel. Once the spokes were in place, I moved yo the truing stand (from the 90s?) and find it is not setup for thru-axle wheels. Luckily I find I can use the cones on an old axle and center the wheel in the stand. Next up finding a dish tool (checks of the rim is centered left to right on the axle and a spoke tension tool (tells you if the spokes are too tight and will cause rim failure or loose and will cause rim failure). 2 hours in and I have the tension on each spoke about correct. Next up is fixing the “dish” (centering the rim to the axle), this is difficult because the spokes on the gear side need to be be shorter then on the other side (this gives room for the 11 sod cassette). I get the tighten/loosen backwards and mess up the dish and the tension. Three hours gone. Reworking the tension and then the dish, repeat 3 times, tension is a bit high on the non-gear side and a bit low on the gear side but the dish is good (rim centered left to right). A bit more time truing the wheel and it’s 4:45 and they close at 5pm. A final check and I declare DONE with 10 minutes to spare. I get a ride back to New Roads and put the tire on the wheel and the wheel on the bike and it rides well. 7pm and my hands are cramping but I have a working bike. Time for lunch and dinner from the local grocery store and hotel microwave. All in all a stressful day that appears to be successful. The trial by fire is the last 800 hundred miles of the Southern Tier, but that is a story for another day…
New rim taped to my old wheel, makes transferring spokes easy, just move one at a time.
Checking the tension on the spokes, too much thing fail, too little things fail.
Checking the Dish - rim needs to be centered on the axle, the hub where the spokes are is not centered so spokes on the gear side are shorter by a fraction.
My new rebuilt wheel ready to put a tire on and test
Truing stand- make sure the wheel is round
Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/kF2vmFbLTkb
Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/ssX8rufLTkb
