It is an open question how much longer my bike will hold up. Here’s the problem in order of descending impact:

NUMBER ONE OVERARCHING PROBLEM: I’ve been carrying way too much stuff. (Hello lotsagear guy!)

2. I’ve been carrying too much stuff, too many miles.
3. I probably shouldn’t have let Kulshan Cycles increase the spoke tension on my rear wheel. (Too tight!)
4. Day before yesterday I hit a piece of iron shaped like a 3:4 ratio railroad spike. (It punched a dime-sized hole in my tire, acted like a door stop to the rear wheel, and knocked the wheel seriously out of true.)

I spent a good hour-and-a-half roadside booting the tire and bringing the wheel back into some semblance of true. But this, really, is the least of the problems. There are small stress-fractures developing in the rim around the spoke holes. This means the rim is on its way to inevitable demise, and that it will be harder and harder to hold the wheel true in the process. Basically, it’s got a deep wobble in it, and the now very tight spokes are fighting a losing battle to hold it true while it crouches full of potential energy, waiting to unleash at the next pothole or railroad spike.

The solution? Really, none. Replace the rim, build a new wheel. Very expensive, special order, wait for the build, time consuming.

In the interim, I’ve unloaded everything “extra” from the bike and will just ride this into the ground. What’s the over/under for it surviving? I’d say one day. I’ve got a half-an-hour of riding on it now. So far so good. If it makes a full day in good shape, I’d expect a lot more wear out of it. If it uncoils in the next twenty-four hours, I’ll have to reassess, but I’m probably done.

Alas.

Alack.