August 8, 2007

The best $10 I ever spent

I heard about the Fiberfix spoke on my ride down the Pacific coast. I didn’t see it in action, but from what I heard it could replace the broken spoke without tearing the wheel apart. I happen to see it in Greggs Bicycle shop a week before I was heading out on my Glacier trip so I picked it up. My next ride I broke a spoke, but unfortunately it was still sitting on the kitchen counter. “Fortunately” I had a chance to test it out a week and a half later.

We were riding into St. Mary after a fantastic 2nd breakfast in Babb, Montana. About 8 miles from camp a spoke in my rear wheel broke. It was on the drive side of the wheel so without the tools to take the cassette off, I would normally be stuck looking for a ride home. Out comes the Fiberfix spoke. I had a couple other riders with me to help me out. The first step in the instructions is “Remain calm and congratulate yourself for carrying Fiberfix in your tool kit.” I like this thing already.

As we are on the side of the road working on the wheel, a bird starts circling (vulture?). One of the guys pretending to be the bird joked “the fat one is mine”. The Fiberfix is basically a Kevlar string that loops from the hub of the wheel to the rim to replace the broken spoke. You can tighten it enough to bring the wheel back into true. We figured it out as a group and were back on the road in 20 minutes or so. Pretty slick.



Once back in camp our mechanic fixed my wheel with the spare spoke I was carrying. I’d recommend putting a Fiberfix spoke in your seat bag. It is only $10, it is pretty small, and it can get you home. If you can’t find it in a bike shop, here is a link to the site online - Fiberfix

1 comment:

  1. And what a 2nd breakfast that was! I have yet to successfully recreate Banana Bread French Toast at home...

    ReplyDelete