On Friday I used to be out for an extended trip on my recumbent and I occurred to look down at my entrance wheel and seen a damaged spoke. The wheel appeared in ok form, not too badly “out of true”, and was nonetheless ride-able. So I headed house and switched bikes, finishing the trip on my upright. I later took a very good have a look at the wheel and located it truly had 5 damaged spokes. All broke on the J-bend the place the spoke comes out of the hub. I used to be stunned as a result of I’d by no means damaged multiple spoke earlier than and in addition normally there may be an audible ping. That is my entrance wheel with the electrical motor, so the spokes are subjected to torque from the motor in addition to impression, e.g. from potholes. It had carried out simply high-quality for effectively over a 12 months so I assume I will need to have hit one thing pretty large lately. I ordered alternative spokes on Amazon, being happy to search out out they arrive in customized lengths so I might order the suitable dimension. I’ll repair the wheel after they are available in and get it again on the street. I’ll attempt to remain on smoother roads sooner or later.

Within the meantime I can nonetheless trip my upright if I need electrical help, and I’ve the unique wheel again on the recumbent. The timing is fortuitous. I hadn’t been using my upright sufficient since I recovered from my final bout of sciatica. So my butt was getting sore on longer rides on the upright. A got here throughout an amusing time period for this on an ultramarathon biking web site: “marshmallow butt”. I must toughen my butt again up, from “marshmallow” to “iron”, as a result of in Might I’m stepping into a good friend’s van all the way down to Paso Robles for just a few days of biking, and my recumbent gained’t match so I’ll be taking my upright. I’ll be sure that to get extra saddle time in on the upright earlier than them.