Loopy Interior 1000 - Gary's Story
"Loopy Interior, Tried and True", September 1-4, 2018
by Gary Baker

This ride was to cap off what has been a good 2018 riding season, OK I DNF'd the Cascade 1200 but I did complete two Super Series, one in Canada and one in the U.S.A. I had a fun year.
Sadly my ride came to a early end. I heard the first ping, a spoke snapped on the front wheel, about 10km from the start. I've blown spokes before and hadn't had any significant problems so I decided to ride onto Little Fort ( about 20km North) where I had planned to stop for a 'bio break' and something to eat. I had a Teflon spoke, I could install it there.

Then 'ping' another spoke snapped at approximately the 25km mark. This time the wheel went way out of true, rubbing against the fender and the forks. The bike was un-ridable. I assessed the situation and started to do the necessary emergency repairs. The first problem was getting the broken spokes off. They were on the disc rotor side of the hub. I had to bend the spokes into the shape of a paper clip to thread them through the openings in the rotor.

I had my doubts that one Teflon spoke would do the job of truing the wheel, but along came Bob G. He kindly passed me two more...Thanks Bob. A lot was going through my mind at this point. How long would it take to install two Teflon spokes and true the wheel? What was the probability of the wheel holding together? Where could I possibly get it rebuilt? One hundred Mile House, possibly; if not there, Williams Lake although I'd likely get there after 6pm ( store closing time). Assessing all the possibilities the probability this wheel failing was high and the likelihood of being able to get it fixed was low.

At this point Barry C. rode up to me. He was not having a fun ride and confided in me that as he had already completed a 1000km ride early in the year and his heart wasn't in it. He also pointed out the weather forecast look awful.

Then there is that sage Rando advise one hears from the veterans, " If it looks as if a DNF is imminent, DNF early.". So Barry rode the 25km back to Barriere to get my vehicle and we were home by early afternoon.

Later that afternoon I took the wheel to Peter Pazdera, of Guywires ( An acknowledged master wheel builder who now lives in Chilliwack), to rebuild the wheel. He told me that another spoke snapped as he started to de-tension the rim to start the rebuild. This just re-enforced, in my mind, that the decision to stop was the right one.

September 5, 2018