Day 48 Out of the woods

No riding today. A gentle start in a gentle place this is a rest day with a little light fettling thrown in. The first surprise was a fawn all alone in the woods not 20 yards from the house so well camouflaged that Adam had to point it out to me.

Concerned in my ‘city mouse’ way that this poor Bambi had been orphaned by an automotive encounter for its mother it was a relief to find, later on, that it had gone. I’m told that the mothers will leave them somewhere safe while they go off to feed.

I went off to look, in a leisurely fashion, at my front wheel. Chocking up the center stand and jacking up the sump released it from terra firma, removing the brake callipers freed it from their drag and left it only subject to the reluctance of the wheel bearings. Not an ideal balancing set up but enough to show me that the center of gravity was not at the center of the wheel. I fiddled with the stuck-on balancing weights moving a pair further around the wheel.

I spun the wheel and immediately a problem was apparent, the tyre wasn’t running true and the wheel beneath had issues too, no cracks thankfully but far from perfect.

The tyre appeared to kick out to one side at a certain point, something that looked to be because the tyre bead is not seated correctly, I read the tyre manual online and attempted to re-seat it using an air compressor that Adam has. Not a lot of joy there so I applied a persuader (rubber mallet) for a while in the hope that I was making it better. Tired of the tyre bashing I eventually stopped and resolved to address this fully back in the UK.

I turned my attention to the weeping rocker box cover on the left hand side and removed it for inspection. I suspect that the cover itself is not completely flat and will attempt to flatten it off with some emery paper and a pane of glass tomorrow.

In between all this fun we went to the lake to take Roebling for a swim, something that he does very well and enjoys despite being no spring chicken. Adam fed me gourmet grilled sausage and lentils and chastised me over a beer or four for being charmed by the chipmunks that are colonising his yard. I captured one on video, unfortunately portrait, sorry, I had no idea that they were large stripy mice with a wicked turn of speed, I blame the cartoons of my childhood.

No map today, no miles covered, just relaxing.