- Joined
- Aug 23, 2017
- Messages
- 286
Good morning all,
Was out on a long, beautiful ride with my brother yesterday and ended up on a path that that goes around a cobble beach. I was on my Commando and he was on some kind of a non-Norton, the makers name I can't recall . A portion of the path turns out to have been washed away long ago and has naturally filled back in with small cobbles. When we reached this section we stopped and considered whether to turn around or try to carry on. The area in question was probably somewhere between 50 and 100 meters across. After hemming and hawing for a few minutes I (foolishly) decided to give it go. Within a few meters my back wheel was sinking into the cobbles, spitting rocks around and the bike was threatening to bottom out. By this point stopping no longer seemed to be an option since it felt like a nightmare version of one of those kids pools filled with plastic balls, except in this case it was rocks. I felt like if I stopped, I would dig in badly trying to move again and would have become a permanent beach fixture. So I kept going.
I made it to the other end, under the watchful eye of an older, very concerned looking gentleman sitting nearby, while my brother quietly turned around and explored his options for meeting me later. I parked on a nice flat surface after the ordeal, and my brother found me before long and we decided to stop for a lunch at that point. I had a good look at the bike, and to my great relief there was no sign that I had scraped anything on the bottom of the machine. There were a few small pebbles here and there to pick out, but no new related scratches.
Unfortunately, my rear rim did get some new pitting from the cobbles. I am fairly rotted about it since I bought this rim brand new a few years ago when I was rebuilding the bike. My daughter and I laced it by hand. The pitting is not super bad or anything, but it is annoying since that rim was pretty pristine up to that point.
So, I am now wondering if I can sand that rim back to spotless perfection, or should I just accept that I have some new patina?
Thanks!
J
Was out on a long, beautiful ride with my brother yesterday and ended up on a path that that goes around a cobble beach. I was on my Commando and he was on some kind of a non-Norton, the makers name I can't recall . A portion of the path turns out to have been washed away long ago and has naturally filled back in with small cobbles. When we reached this section we stopped and considered whether to turn around or try to carry on. The area in question was probably somewhere between 50 and 100 meters across. After hemming and hawing for a few minutes I (foolishly) decided to give it go. Within a few meters my back wheel was sinking into the cobbles, spitting rocks around and the bike was threatening to bottom out. By this point stopping no longer seemed to be an option since it felt like a nightmare version of one of those kids pools filled with plastic balls, except in this case it was rocks. I felt like if I stopped, I would dig in badly trying to move again and would have become a permanent beach fixture. So I kept going.
I made it to the other end, under the watchful eye of an older, very concerned looking gentleman sitting nearby, while my brother quietly turned around and explored his options for meeting me later. I parked on a nice flat surface after the ordeal, and my brother found me before long and we decided to stop for a lunch at that point. I had a good look at the bike, and to my great relief there was no sign that I had scraped anything on the bottom of the machine. There were a few small pebbles here and there to pick out, but no new related scratches.
Unfortunately, my rear rim did get some new pitting from the cobbles. I am fairly rotted about it since I bought this rim brand new a few years ago when I was rebuilding the bike. My daughter and I laced it by hand. The pitting is not super bad or anything, but it is annoying since that rim was pretty pristine up to that point.
So, I am now wondering if I can sand that rim back to spotless perfection, or should I just accept that I have some new patina?
Thanks!
J