This is becoming a habit. I only had the new front wheel on for a week and I’d already managed to wreck the rear one. Whenever I stopped pedalling and let the bike roll it sounded like a bag of spanners back there. I thought it might be the bearings so I dropped it over to Broken Spoke Cycles to see what they could do.

They guessed it might be the bearings too and said they should have it sorted if I came back to collect it the next day. So Sunday afternoon I went back but it was bad news. My hub was diagnosed as, “completely shagged” and they’d have to order me a new one which could take a few days.

Damn, just what I didn’t need! Except these comedians were winding me up, and proceeded to pull out a brand new, freshly laced Halo freedom disc wheel to match the front one they’d build for me last week, but with a new Specialized hub they apparently had “going spare” along with a new rear disc, tube and Schwalbe ‘Rocket Ron’ tyre. It looked awesome!

While Mark had been spinning me this web of lies for his own amusement, he’d been cleaning up all the rings of a rear cassette, this was mine, and he’d got it looking like new. So he threw that back on the hub and sent me on my way with a handshake and a “thanks for taking care of our website.” Seriously cool guys.

Dropped it back into the bike as soon as I got home, look at the shinyness!!

It didn’t last long, I took it for a ride around the very muddy and a little flooded Paxton Pits nature reserve. The new tyres dealt with all the mud really well, not a foot down the whole way around.

// Matt