Matt Matteson

A week with out updating?!

Sorry guys. I got a new bike tire, bought some shoes for the clipless action on the bike. I was sayin, I think my clown size shoes are about half the weight of the bike. I’ve had quite a few awesome night rides, the road behind the Coor’s plant is so smooth, I feel like I am on a trainer but it has so much more magic. Went on a long ride to White ranch, and have a few stories from that adventure.

Went to a texas holden tournament, it was actually put on by my brother in law TJ, sorta a birthday celebration, entertained me a lot longer than I would have bet. I was there from about 2 to 9.

Sunday morning I had a meeting, then drove down to Colo Springs to meet up with Shane, got back tonight. We played some Frisbee golf, which I was amazed on how many people were on the course, and put a new deck in his new used VW passat.

On the way back to golden I had some dinner and dessert with dad, and meet up with my buddy kevin.

What do you want to know about?

Yesterday I had lunch with the parents at panera bread, then when I got back unhooked the boat from the van and went over to lucas’. Lucas was in Europe for like the last 6 months, so it’s cool to have him around again. Danielle was already over there waiting for me, we loaded up lucas’ two big old kayaks. Mark and Christin (?) joined in on the adventure as well. There was a decent breeze, sorta made me wish we had the sail boat out. The wind made steering a bit hard but we survived, they need keels. =-)

Blah, we were back around 6, and all decided showers were the best thing to do next. I went home showered and that’s then when I went to REI. I didn’t find anything to do last night, and so I meet my parents for dinner at 10:30 at Ruby Tuesday. The waitress was a girl i knew from church, I hadn’t seen her in about two years.

Blah blah blah. I am a little worried about the bug. It drove fine yesterday all night, but I put about 20 miles tops on it, and I went to check the oil, the dip stick about burned my hand. I remember reading online, a way to check the temp is to see if you can hold the dipstip (even allowing yourself to pass it hand to hand), buggie is running hot, and backfiring while idling so running rich. Wish the ‘idle air adjustment screw’ did something for me, I have tried fixing it now twice, and it does absolutely nothing for me.

What else do you want to know?

Since Danielle, Lucas, and I’s camping adventure of last weekend fell through they are planning a big sand dune trip like in a week. Mark and Christin (mark’s gf) are going to be coming as well. I was quite excited, until last night I realized the dynamics of the group, and I’m questioning the adventure.. Bah we’ll see.

-update- Turns out Mark’s GF is not going and luke’s sister is going. I guess I’m going. I gotta go turn in a time off sheet at work today.

I made it to the only place that could help with bikes past 7 pm, REI. I admitted my complete stupidity to a guy named tom, then to another guy in there ‘bike shop’. I think I am going to go around to some local shops and find a new affordable wheel, and have them move my cassette over. Turns out the rim i broke would be $150 to replace, ouch, I think I’m just going to spend $60 or so. When Drew gets back in the states I am going to get the matching wheel to the front one, so this one is just for two weeks of riding.

Click here to see big picture of broken rim.

So I like learning new stuff, i like tinkering, and this bike stuff is fun… but not the current wheel/rim episode. So yah.

My wheel is a good 6″ out of true, the rim is broken pretty much all the way through. (I can now tell you this cross section of the rim is correct.) The spoke near the break is completely stripped, the nipples on the top of the wheel are down in the hole so I can’t remove them like the guides online say to. I really have no clue what to do or how to do it or who to ask. Is the wheel a complete waste? Could I some how fix it and ‘limp’ on this tire until Drew gets back and I can hopefully pick up the wheel that is supposed to be on the bike? I don’t know what size wheel to buy to replace it… Is the rim attached to the hub? Can I buy just the rim, and new spokes but keep the hub and the cassette? Can you buy a whole wheel with just a hub to mount the cassette from this one? If I walk into a bike shop how many people will laugh at my wheel for brining it in? How much will they charge me to do any of the work?

I JUST WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE!!

I feel mostly worthless, my car stops working and I have zero conclusions why… My bike falls apart, and I only compound the problem…