April 2017 Newsbrief

The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society             April 2017, Volume 34, Issue #4

President’s Report                                                 John Pringle
The Club and a Cross Canada Tour – Lets Go?

If one designs a country, particularly one bounded on three sides by oceans it will be an open call to the adventurous to cross from one side to the other. The adventurous romantic will jump at the suggestion and immediately visualize the dipping of one’s feet/wheels in one ocean and then in the other. The details of organizing the tour will come later. Others will take on the task in memory of a special friend or charitable cause. But take it they do. The Halifax Herald newspaper in 1920 sponsored a father/son team’s walk from Halifax to Vancouver (The Amazing Foot Race of 1921; Nimbus Publishing 2011). The father, a shell shocked WWI vet, wanted to escape his demons; the son accompanied his stoic father despite a mid-winter departure date. It wasn’t but a few days later that Annapolis Valley newlyweds were inspired by this pair and decided to make a race of it. The spirit was contagious; a third team joined a few days later. For the most part these teams travelled the railroad lines connecting Canadian cities and villages alike, for the trans-Canada Highway was but a mere twinkle in the eye of a forward looking Tofino resident who lobbied for such a road back in 1921.  Eight years later, Lillian Alling, a Russian emigre was so homesick she walked alone from New York City to Anchorage, Alaska. That much we know. Crossing to Siberia, however, begs proof, but given her indomitable spirit she no doubt made it. Another feisty lass, Dervla Murphy rode her bike, unaccompanied, from Dublin to India in 1960 (Full Tilt: Dublin to India with Bike; Peter Mayer Pub. Inc. 1986). She was warned of the many dangers for a young woman alone in countries such as Iran and Afghanistan, but off she went, and continued to travel for another 50 years. 

The Trans-Canada Highway Act was passed by the federal parliament in 1949 and construction began in 1950. It was completed in 1962,  opening the door for many adventurers to take up the challenge of getting from coast to coast on their own shoe clad feet [Terry Fox, as we all know so well, challenged the 8 000 km (5,000 mi) tarmac ribbon on one foot]. CCCTS was formed 34 years ago, in part to determine how a trans-Canada bicycle ride might impact the health of seniors. What vision! What spirit! Our own Club founders taking on such a challenge. Organizing to get oneself across the country is a minor task compared to taking a troop of seniors across; seniors who agreed to allow physiologists to record their vital statistics both pre- and post-tour. The ride was completed by greater than 20 members, camping and cooking as they travelled. Since this inaugural CCCTS crossing records show another six Club-sponsored tours were successfully completed with an average of 3.5 years between rides. The last occurred in 2004. (A 2008 tour of CCCTS members rode to Halifax, but they chose not to be Club sanctioned.) There have been a number of pairs of Club members making the journey; one couple rode unassisted and camped 70% of the nights, making the 6 500 km journey to Halifax in 89 days. Another member rode the distance with a friend, over seven years, as a memorial to her son. More recently Dan McGuire, a long-time CCCTS member rode alone from Whitehorse to Cape Spear, Newfoundland while in his 80’s. His daughter asked, and I paraphrase, “Why Dad, given that you’ve crossed Canada many times by bike, do you have to do it again while struggling with poor health?” “Because I love Canada”, was his reply.

Is it not time for another cross-Canada trip? I’m convinced Club members have not lost their spirit. We’ve toured Croatia, southwestern China, Viet Nam, and more recently Tanzania followed by a trek up Kilimanjaro. So a sense of adventure is yet among us. Maybe these adventures have replaced the trans-Canada crossing? I hope not. Crossing Canada is hugely rewarding, that I can attest. Roads are much improved and there’s now the Trans Canada Trail. Bikes are far superior then even in 2004. Spokes rarely break. Tires rarely flat. Chainless bicycles can be had equipped with electric shifters. I must admit disappointment that the sesquicentennial celebration ride offered Club members by Rick Mathias could not generate more than a handful of participants.  Please note, however, that seasoned Club tour organizers Robin Howe and Dan Carey have a plan to make the crossing next year. We have our long-time spirited Club member, Dan McGuire as a role model, along with the Club founders. It indeed is a trip of a lifetime; one that attracts many avid international cyclists. Planning for Robin and Dan’s trip should soon begin. Let’s get behind them and make a cross Canada trip happen in 2018. We can do it!

 Welcome New Members
Paul Healey Courtenay BC
Debbie Hind Courtenay BC
Ed Weymouth Edmonton AB
Barbara Hall Edmonton AB
Marie Gaudreau Fanny Bay BC
Russell Moore Oakville ON
Ivona Sindlerova Vancouver BC
Upcoming Hub and Spokes
Upcoming Tours
How to True a Bent Wheel    

Written by: Dan Goldwater

“Ksh ksh ksh” goes your wheel as your ride. This is the sound of a bent rim. Bent rims are frustrating because they slow you down, but they are usually easy to fix if you know how.

Rims can get bent out of shape from hitting a big pothole, by getting twisted when you try to wedge your bike in or out of a rack and when a spoke breaks. When the bend in the rim is large enough, it will hit your brake pad every time it goes around, causing the characteristic “thwp” or “ksh” sound, and slowing you down.

Fixing a moderately bent rim yourself is easily accomplished with a spoke wrench, which comes in several sizes. Most multi-tools will have two to four sizes of spoke wrench to fit the different sizes of spokes available on the market. Pro mechanics remove a bent wheel from the bike and put it on a special truing stand, but this is not needed unless you want to get a racing bike in tip-top shape. For a regular bike, you can true it quite nicely without even removing your wheel from your bike.

Checking the rim and spokes

Flip over your bike so you can spin the wheel easily. First check if you have any broken spokes. If so, you can follow the same process to straighten out your rim, but you will want to get that spoke replaced soon. Lighten the load on your bike as much as possible if you have a long way to go with a broken spoke. Next, check that your axle is fully seated in your dropouts. If you have a quick-release wheel, it might not be. You don’t want to re-true the rim if the only problem is that the axle is not sitting straight. Same thing with your brakes – first check that they didn’t get bashed to the side or the brake cable isn’t hung up on something.

Checking the alignment

Slowly rotate your wheel while you look at the size of the gap between it and your brake pad. As the wheel turns, you will notice that in some places it is closer to the pad and in some places farther away. With a perfectly true wheel, the gap will be even all around. You don’t need it to be perfect.

Finding the problem spots

Slowly rotate to the part of the rim where it is hitting the brake pad. Here my rim is bent to the left. To fix it, I tighten the spoke opposite the bend: the spoke circled in green. Tightening this spoke pulls the rim to the right. If the bend was going in the opposite direction, I’d instead tighten the spoke circled in blue.

Tightening spokes

To tighten a spoke, place the spoke nipple into the notch in the wrench. Check that you have the right size of wrench. Turn COUNTERCLOCKWISE to TIGHTEN. If you have any doubt, first “pluck” the spoke like a guitar string to make a sound. Tighten one full turn and pluck again. If the pitch is higher you are tightening the spoke; if it’s lower, you are loosening it.

Getting it true

The ding in your rim might be a couple of inches long. Start by evenly tightening the two spokes opposite the ding by a half turn of the spoke wrench. Then recheck the gap. Repeat until the ding is mostly straightened out. If you have a larger dinged area, you might end up tightening three or four spokes opposite to it. If the nipples are corroded, put a drop of oil on them so they are easier to turn.

Finishing up

After the wheel spins freely and the gap looks reasonably even all around, go around the rim squeezing each pair of spokes. This will even out any stresses in the rim. Recheck your truing after this.

Tips

You can also loosen the spokes opposite the ones you are tightening, which is particularly helpful if you would otherwise need to tighten by a lot of turns in one area.

If your rim has several dings in various directions, start with the largest one.

A less common, but fixable problem: you might get an area where the rim is farther away from the hub than the other areas. This can be improved by tightening all the spokes in that area evenly.

Pluck spokes to gauge their relative tightness.

If you have to tighten by more than five turns of the spoke wrench, your wheel is probably in bad shape. Rims can become too damaged to be re-trued – after enough dings, you’ll need a new one.

(Handy when your mechanic is not available.  editor)

Newsbrief

Published at least ten times a year by The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society, a non – profit organization for retired people and others who enjoy recreational cycling. 

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