Jeff Ballweg

So I went over to Bush Inn on a routine errand, and as it’s a pretty nice fall day, I rode my clunky old Phillips. Julie and I got a couple of these bikes when we got to NZ, and they’re great for Christchurch, which doesn’t have a single hill that I can think of. If I had to describe the bike I’d say it’s old, slow, heavy, doesn’t really shift, doesn’t really brake, and you sit up so straight you’d go backward in a headwind – other than that, it’s totally awesome.

So today I was doing the aforementioned errands when I needed to make a quick dash across the street. Kiwi drivers don’t stop for much, and they’re certainly not stopping for me jay-biking across the street. So when I need to cross I just dash it, and when I get to the other side, I  wheelie up the curb. When I did it today I slammed the rear wheel into the curb pretty hard – not snake-bite hard, but hard enough that when I did it there was a very audible “poing!” sound, followed by a screechy-scratching sound like someone was raking the sides of a metal garbage can.

I thought it might be a broken spoke, but in fact, it was six broken spokes, a new personal best.

While I was walking home I did think of how lucky I was. Not only was the weather nice, and I was close to home, but just a week earlier I was doing bunny hops in front of a few of Julie’s Uni friends. (People love to see tricks on old bikes, it has that Rappin’ Grandma feel that everyone loves.) Anyway, we were in the CBD and had the wheel decided to blow up then I’d have been pushing it a good 3km, in the dark, with everyone laughing at me.

So I guess it’s time to learn how to lace a wheel – anyone got any pointers? Anyone know where to find a 28″ wheel in good shape (in New Zealand)?