Problem Solved?

What an amusing visit to my local bike shop – Speed River Bicycles (@speedriverbike) today.  Showed up with a trainer wheel, a couple blown tubes and my stories of getting 10 minutes into rides and flatting out — on the trainer.

The guys looked at me like I had two heads -  until I told them that the rim tape wasn’t done very well…. at which point Mike (lead wrench at the shop) grabbed the wheel to take a look.  He looked for about 10 seconds before he asked “who put the rim tape on this?” followed by various long winded and unflattering ways of saying it was “not done very well!”.  (For the sake of those with delicate sensibilities, I will NOT be repeating his actual statements verbatim. And for the record, it was one of the other wrenches at the shop – who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent!).

Within 10 minutes I was sent on my way with the rim tape having been redone, and a couple tubes in my pocket to replace the ones that had been blown by a particularly atrocious job of prepping the wheel. And that’s exactly why I cannot say enough positive things about my LBS!  They are a highly skilled group of cycling fanatics, for whom quality customer service is not only delivered, but part of who they are.  If on occasion you get something go wrong (like this situation) they MORE than make up for it in whatever way they can.

There’s a 99% probability the flats were a direct result of the tape job — so the test will be tonight when I get back on the trainer to see whether I can get through the entire ride! Wish me luck!