Wobblin' Wheel!

Route: Home to Massapequa via 495 service road and Bethpage Bike Path
Mileage: 100 miles

We got off to bit of a late start so didn't leave until around 11:30.  We don't have a lot of diversity to our route anymore, same bike path and route, but we wanted to try a new place.  Jen found a ice cream parlor/diner that seemed to be the ticket.  Of course it rained along the ride as usual, so we arrived a bit damp, despite having put gear en route.

We had our weird diner food (I love that a lot of diners we have stopped at have 'healthy' sections because it allows me to not get a bun with my burger--but this one was pretty gross, I actually only ate the peaches and cottage cheese...and a milkshake).  We ate up, dried off, Jen changed into dry clothes because she's always soaked being in the back...then hit the road again.

 We had only made it about 10 miles or so before we heard a rhythmic rubbing noise as we rode.  We stopped and realized the rear tire was rubbing against the frame as the wheel was slightly out of true (cue Jen holding back an "I told you so" as she had tried to point that out in the past).  Our tandem is a custom racing bike--it's built for speed and skinny tires.  We tried to put a SLIGHTLY wider tire on and it wouldn't fit in the front but barely fit in the back.  We hadn't had a flat since we did, which was nice, but now it seemed as though the wheel had to be perfectly true (not warped at all) to keep it rolling.  Well, this was not good for the tire or the wheel--or us--if we kept riding like this.  Jen tried to find bike shops we could stop at to see if they sold a truing key/spoke wrench so we could tighten the spokes in places to make true again.

Keegan is a seasoned bicycle mechanic, so we knew it wasn't a terribly difficult fix, we just needed the tool.  Well, it was 4:45pm on a Saturday, half the places were closed, the other half said they didn't have a tool for sale and wouldn't let you borrow theirs (jerks!).  Finally we tried calling one of the places back and asked if they had a multitool with a spoke wrench on it and they said yes (why didn't they say that in the first place!?) so we biked the 5.5 miles there on our wonky wheel, and once Keegan got the tool we were off and running! Check out how fast!

 Turns out, the wheel doesn't last long in it's designated spot, and we had to stop again on the way back, but it wasn't so bad.  We were about 7:30 before we made it home.

Check out the greasy mechanic-------->