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Day: August 21, 2011

Broken Spoke II

Published August 21, 2011

Today I broke another spoke; the same one that was quickly fitted as a replacement before the Hanson Hills XC race by a guy from Grayling’s The Bicycle Shop. I guess 2.5 months of riding on a quick (and much appreciated) fix isn’t too bad. The wheel is wobbling a bit so I won’t be riding this bike until I can get it fixed up.

I was surprised by how it broke. Much like the last time I was riding along pretty trivial single track, a short and relatively smooth uphill section at Stony Creek and not going over anything more difficult than a front lawn. Suddenly I heard a BANG sound, stopped to look at the wheel, and saw one end of a spoke hanging into the center near the hub.

Oh well, that’s life I guess. I can’t complain too much, as I’ve got at least 2466 miles (likely more, as not all were logged) on these wheels. I’ve got some 291mm spokes here from building up a wheel set back in April. DT Swiss’ Spoke Calculator is recommending a 293mm spoke, but hopefully I’ll be able to make do with something 2mm shorter.

UPDATE: The replacement spoke did the trick. Wheel’s held up for ~30 miles thus far.

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New Shrubs, Successful Flowers

Published August 21, 2011

Thanks to a suggestion from Bill Edgerton and Danielle’s concurrence there are now two Althea / Hibiscus Syriacus / Rose of Sharon bushes planted on each side of the sidewalk, next to the driveway, replacing the two dead shrubs. Two different colors were purchased a Chiffon (blue) for closest to my place and an Aphrodite (pink) for the space across the sidewalk, next to my neighbor’s place. They were planted in decent size holes, placed on a cone of clay, surrounded potting soil, sprinkled lightly with slow-release fertilizer, and topped with the sand/clay/dirt mixture that was dug out of the holes. Each has been been watered and lightly rained on, so hopefully they’ll take and fill in these spaces nicely.

Click here if you’d like to see all the photos of the new shrubs, including the tags.

On the topic of growing things, this year’s flowers (and herbs and such) have come along very nicely since they were planted back on May 22nd. The sage went from forlorn to full, Danielle’s Meyer lemon tree has lemons on it, the nicotina around the tree has filled in, and the purple plant has practically exploded. Compare this photo of the porch from three months ago with this one taken this afternoon.

If you’re interested, the rest of the 2011 Flower photos can be seen here.

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