Solid Block of Ise

Remember my bike, the one I bought back in April of 2004? Well, it’s been providing loyal service for all this time and a few days ago I felt that some investments were required.

Generally I’m very un-kind with my bikes. I expect them to simply work, and put very little maintenance into making them work. About the only maintenance I’ve done to this bike has been to fill upp the tires when the pressure got low and oil the chain. Oh, and two years ago I replaced the rear tire and tube since the former was all dried up and had a big hole in it which led to the latter simply falling apart.

A few days ago I got fed up with how warped the rear rim had become and decided to replace it. A contributing fact to this decision was that several spokes had come lose and regularly poked holes in the inner-tube, as well as not really helping keep the rim non-warped.

Quick call to the bike-shop (Intersport in Umeå, same place I bought the bike from) confirmed that the rim actually cost less than half of what I expected it to cost. This meant there was a budget for two new tires. I went with very fat, low-profile tires. Excellent for the type of riding I tend to do, which is 99% on paved roads or similar surfaces. They ride smooth, have excellent grip and roll easier than the typical rough mountainbike-tires I had before.

I also bought degreaser and cleaned away the years of filth from the gear-assembly and derailer as well as adjusted brakes and gears. Gears proved quite a challenge since I didn’t know how to do it, but thanks to Google and my general stubbornness I prevailed.

Also, I need to give props to Intersport. They tolerated all my questions, moved the hub-ring assembly thingamajig (the gears on the old rim, I don’t know the proper vernacular) without cost to the new rim, and when I messed something up and blew the new innertube they just winked and replaced it for free - despite it being their policy to never replace blown innertubes. Really swell of them.

The ride is incredibly smooth. These tires just roll easily over any cracks in the pavement and swallows any minor bumps. Also, since they have such a low thread-profile they make less noise and provide less friction which means you’ll roll farther than with typical mountainbike-tires. Quite nice.

Some pics:

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