willy in pacifi
10-08-2010, 05:14 PM
Getting ready
As the days wind down toward the start of this years Furnace Creek 508 I am becoming more and more nervous. Last year I bailed at mile 290ish due to getting blown off my bike repeatedly. I should have taken a long break then kept going but I was broken. I should have ridden smarter as now I have to return to get this monkey off my back. I believe that every solo rider can easily ride 508 miles and it is only the unknown conditions at this race that have to be dealt with. It may be heat, wind or both but if you manage it correctly for your abilities you should be able to finish in the 48 hours.
I have been getting my bikes and van all ready over the past couple of months and everything is coming together. My van has been a crew vehicle three times before and I have it all dialed in. Everything has a place and it is well organized. It is the Bikemobile. Inside there is a plywood shelf system that allows everything to have its own place that can be accessed from both inside and outside which is important since at night you do not want to have to stop the van to get to anything. If the van stops the rider has to stop.
I have ridden 400k’s, 600k’s and a 1,000k this year with only my bike and what I can carry on it so having a van with my entire bike shop and three bikes seems overkill. It is but you never know what it is you may need out there and there is nowhere out there to buy anything you may need as far as bike stuff.
Crew
I put the word out for crew about 2 months before the start. I got three fairly quickly and even had 2 or 3 extras that I had to turn down. You let them down easy knowing you may need to ask them later as your original volunteers sometimes have to bow out due to more important things than following me around in the desert.
Roland
I met Rowland on a few brevets and he is hard not to notice as he rides an odd bike. Not a standard upright frame and not a recumbent but something in-between. Since he volunteered I got to know him a bit better while riding a couple of the Santa Cruz brevets. He is very mellow and seems more than happy to learn the art of crewing
Tom
I have known Tom since 2005 or 2006. We put together and rode a fleche together in the rain. He is much faster than me and hates to stop for any length of time so I had a tough time keeping up with him on brevets. He also is known as the guy who rides in SPD sandals. Tom has lots of crewing experience an soloed the 508 in 2004, the year of the nasty winds
Chuck
Hadn’t met Chuck before but I am sure rode a bit with him at the SF 600k this year. Chuck has soloed the 508 and has crewed 5 or 6 solos to successful finishes. He has lots of brutal lights which are going to come in handy heading down Townes Pass at midnight hitting 40-50 MPH.
Stuff
Other than having every bike tool on hand as well as tubes, tubes, tubes, I am bringing three bikes. My main bike is a Speedvagen with clip on aerobars. It has Reynolds Attack carbon wheels and a 50/34 up front and a 12-25 in the back. Gears good for everything except Townes Pass. I have to ride 200 miles to get to Townes and it is 10 miles and 4,000 feet. I may be able to make it up on fresh legs but once at the top I still have 300 miles to go and need fresh legs. I would be beat taking this bike up Townes. Over the past 3-4 months I have been riding it to get used to the aerobars. You just can’t throw aerobars on a bike and be comfy. You have to get your legs and upper body used to them. By the time of this race I could have fallen asleep in them I was so dialed in.
My back up bike is almost identical to the Speedvagen but without aerobars. If the SV gives out I will transfer the bars to my Green Vanilla. It has the same gearing but has Open Pro wheels. These wheels will be much better if the winds pick up like last year.
My third bike is a new bike for me. It is a Monster Cross bike capable of using 2”+ tires. I will not have cross tires on it but I brought a set for one particular downhill with terrible roads that just eat your standard wheels. A buddy broke his bars on that section of road this year. The bike was built by Paul Taylor. It has a 44/32/22 up front and a 12-27 in the back and uses Industry Nine disc brake wheels. This bike will be used for riding up Townes Pass, down KelBaker and any other uphill later in the race if I start to poop out. Tom switched out the cross tires for the Michelin Pro 2 25mm tires since the first time I plan to get on it is for riding up Townes.
Trip down to start
I woke up Friday morning and out of the blue my left forearm is killing me. It is very tight as if I have some nerve damage. There was no indication of this Thursday evening and I cannot think of anything that would have brought this on. I leave home about 7:30ish to drive south to pick up my crew on the way to Santa Clarita. All the way down my arm continued to hurt and it seemed to move up my arm toward my shoulder. I tired to remember if when you have a heart attack does the pain start in your chest and move to your arm or start at your arm and move to your chest. I get to Tom’s place in Mountain View and run over the van with him waiting for Roland who will be dropped off by his wife. I mention the arm pain to Tom but just casually as I do not want him to think I am already coming up with excuses. But the damn thing is really painful and tight. Roland shows up and we jump in the van to get on the road to pick up Chuck in Morgan Hill. We stop by Chuck’s beautiful estate in Morgan Hill; load him into the van grab some gas and we are on our way. A little later than I would have wanted but we should have no problem with bike or van inspection as I have done this before and Tom and Chuck are experience with the check in as well.
We stopped for lunch at an In and Out burger and noticed the Taylor was coming loose up on the rack. I think it may be the heat that is melting the foam portion of the claw on the lack-Jaw bike rack. I reposition the bike and add a tie down. The rack allows for both wheels to remain on the bike and both wheels are ratcheted onto the rack for extra security. Well as we are approaching the Grape Vine I hear Roland say “Cross bike down” and I start looking in the side view mirror for a bike tumbling down Hwy 5. What had happened is that the lock Jaw portion of the rack had failed but the bike had just fallen sideways since the wheels were secured. We pull over and remount the Taylor on the fork mount rack without a front tire. I was so freaked out thinking I had lost my new bike and so relieved it did not even have a scratch on it. Tom had been driving since In and Out and resumed driving duty. It is about 100 out and has been for most of the drive. We had the A/C on full blast to keep cool and when Tom gunned it to re-enter the freeway the AC compressor went out. We smelt burning rubber which turned out to be the belt. I believe when the AC went out the AC pulley froze, we smelt burning rubber but then the pulley became freewheeling again and everything was well again. Athou no AC now. The crew was bummed and I was worried about the serpentine belt since it runs everything including the power steering, power brakes, alternator, and the cooling. If you lose that belt you are done and would need a tow. It seemed to hold up to race headquarters and we got the bikes and van inspected. Tom and Roland were using their smart phones to see if they could find someone who could fix it, otherwise it would be hot for the crew this weekend. I had a bit of sympathy for them since they were volunteering but hey, I’m not getting any AC this weekend : )
We attended the mandatory meeting and met up with the usual crowd of crazy’s. Most of the folks who ride these things are just your normal next door neighbor type. Very few of us look good wearing a helmet compared with the pros you see at any of the tours who look like they were born with helmets on. I have to say we are a weird looking bunch of folks.
After the meeting we hit the Albertsons for ice, water and crew food for the weekend then head back to the hotel where I get to bed about 9pm.
Pre-race
I am up at 6ish for the 7am start. At 6:30 I get on my bike and ride the half mile to the start hotel, get some coffee and sit down with Paul V who is doing the relay this year. That lasts about 10 minutes then figure I might as well go out side to see who is out there. I wander around saying hello to all the folks I know and wishing them a great ride. Then I grab my bike and wait the next 10 minutes for the start. I am right next to Bill Walton so we chat a bit about both of us having grown up in San Diego. BTW my arm is still in pain and I am really worried about getting to mile 25 and having to tell my crew I am done.
Stage 1 - Start to California City, 82 miles, 6,200”
7:00 finally comes and we all ride out together for the first 5 miles. I ride up and down the group to talk to racers like Susan F (Scarlet Macaw), Adam B (Rock Rabbit) and meet a few others. This section and the first 25 miles is a great place to meet new riders and find out their story. Once we turn into San Francisquito Canyon at mile 5 the race is on. I always make a point to be as far back as possible so not to get caught up with faster riders. This is a time trial after all so being up front will only get me carried away. By being in the back I do not have to worry about too many riders passing me and I actually get to do the passing. As we ride along I chat up a few riders including the Texas Tortuous (tandem couple), Frank who ran the Badwater 135 ultra and is riding this race to complete the Desert Cup, Jim in the classic division who I have ridden many brevet with and Black Sheep who is also going for the Desert Cup and has and artificial leg from the knee down. I kid him that I hope he does not plan to pull out a fresh leg at the half way point. My arm is still in pain and I am finding myself holding it against my chest like in a sling and thinking this is not good. I am riding with one arm and I have over 500 miles to go. Well I drop into the aerobars and off I go up and down thru the canyons looking for my crew who have to wait at mile 25ish. I have two bottles and that is it until I see them. It is slightly overcast so the temps are fine. I keep leapfrogging with Jim and the tandem as we go up and down the hills. Jim is in the classic division which means he has to ride with only 7 speeds and has to use downtube shifters on a steel bike. Not too bad but the killer is you are not allowed to use clipless pedals and have to use toe clips. He is doing well and should be killing me but we keep seeing each other and so we talk a bit here and there but not too long as we are not allowed to ride together. As I approach the section of road where all the crew are waiting I realize my arm is improving. At the start I would say my arm was at 50% and now it is creeping up to 80%. I am ecstatic. Last week I was worried about the heat but last night I was only worried about my arm. If I can get my arm back then I will be in good shape. I pass the crew, exchange bottles and off for what is a great downhill into the desert. This downhill is very fast and I hit 46 MPH. As you come off the hill you hit a road that just goes straight forever. There are lots of roads like this out here but it still amazes me how far they go. I am moving but not as fast as last year which is great. Last year we had tremendous tailwinds which pushed me thru this section in the high 20’s but now I riding along in the low 20’s. Since last year we had such nasty headwinds on day two I smile hoping the lack of tailwinds means I will be able to get thru day two this year. My crew is leapfrogging me and I am keeping on my schedule of one bottle of Hammer Perpetum per hour. I have told my crew to put 1.5 scoops of Perpetum in each bottle and a shot of Hammer gel for taste and calories. This along with straight water should work for quite a while. The crew waits at each corner to let me know when to turn and also to remind me to come to almost a complete stop or face a 15 minute time penalty if caught. I see the van more often than last year which is nice but they are stopping more than needed. But this gives Roland a chance to get lots of pictures which is great. Eventually I head up the Windmill climb and turn right toward Mojave. These hills are long but not tall so on some of them you can stay in the aerobars. The downhills are the same so you get long gradual downhills in the aerobars and they are fast and fun. I keep seeing the van and they have not mentioned the AC issue so I feel better. Then I see the van off the road with the hood up but still then send me forward. However, the next time by they stop me around mile 60 and tell me the engine noise is getting worse and smelling bad. Both Tom and Roland have smart phones and figure this is the do or die point to find a rental car. They load me up with water and head eventually to Lancaster to get an SUV rental car. They tell me to wait 20 miles down the road at time check 1 in California City until I hear from them. If they get a car they will call and send me on my way otherwise I am heading out into no-mans land and I may not get cell reception. I head out on course and worry all the way to Cali City. I do not want to have to come back next year to get last year’s monkey off my back. I am here now and 70 miles into this thing. I see Nicole, Jim’s GF and crew, and tell her the story and ask her to keep an eye on me. In the next 15 miles or so she is out on the road with bottle handoff and bananas for me. By the time I get to time station 1 she has recruited 2-3 other teams to keep an eye on me as she needs to get back to Jim. I cannot tell you how special it made me feel that folks who I have never met started to fill my bottles and stuffing gel packs into my pockets. I hung around for maybe 45 minutes until I talked to Tom who said they had a SUV and to get going.
Stage 2, California City to Trona, 70 miles, 4,200”
So I take off like a bat out of hell and am feeling great. My arm is now at about 95% so it is now off the table of problems. I get about 5 miles down the road when the road surface changes. I hit a very minor bump, hear a twang and look at a wobbling front wheel. One of my 20 front spokes broke. I stop, pull the spoke out, open up my brakes a bit and continue down the road. I have a spare set of wheels in the van so just have to wait until the crew gets here to change it out. It is not that bad but there are downhills that I would not want to ride down in excess of 40 MPH on 19 spokes. I continue to get fantastic support from about 3 crews out on the road. Sockeye Salmon, Black Sheep, and Coon Hound are all over me. Eventually my crew fly by in a new GMC SUV but since there was no factory rack they were not able to transfer over my Mega Road Warrior rack system. I tell them I need my spare front wheel but it is still in the van. They could not bring everything so chose what they thought was most important. I continue on the wobbly wheel then stop and ask to try the Industry nine wheel off the Taylor. There is just no way I am going to hit high speeds on this wheel with confidence. The I9 rim is too wide to fit inside my brake pads. I continue riding then stop again as the wheel is now rubbing on the pads. We try opening the brakes more and I see there is a quick release cam and flip it. It still rubs but got me thinking we may be able to fit the I9 wheel in. Sure enough it fit perfectly and I am set to go. So now my SV road bike has a disc brake up front. But it is smooth and stable and just in time for the long downhill into Trona at time station 2.
As the days wind down toward the start of this years Furnace Creek 508 I am becoming more and more nervous. Last year I bailed at mile 290ish due to getting blown off my bike repeatedly. I should have taken a long break then kept going but I was broken. I should have ridden smarter as now I have to return to get this monkey off my back. I believe that every solo rider can easily ride 508 miles and it is only the unknown conditions at this race that have to be dealt with. It may be heat, wind or both but if you manage it correctly for your abilities you should be able to finish in the 48 hours.
I have been getting my bikes and van all ready over the past couple of months and everything is coming together. My van has been a crew vehicle three times before and I have it all dialed in. Everything has a place and it is well organized. It is the Bikemobile. Inside there is a plywood shelf system that allows everything to have its own place that can be accessed from both inside and outside which is important since at night you do not want to have to stop the van to get to anything. If the van stops the rider has to stop.
I have ridden 400k’s, 600k’s and a 1,000k this year with only my bike and what I can carry on it so having a van with my entire bike shop and three bikes seems overkill. It is but you never know what it is you may need out there and there is nowhere out there to buy anything you may need as far as bike stuff.
Crew
I put the word out for crew about 2 months before the start. I got three fairly quickly and even had 2 or 3 extras that I had to turn down. You let them down easy knowing you may need to ask them later as your original volunteers sometimes have to bow out due to more important things than following me around in the desert.
Roland
I met Rowland on a few brevets and he is hard not to notice as he rides an odd bike. Not a standard upright frame and not a recumbent but something in-between. Since he volunteered I got to know him a bit better while riding a couple of the Santa Cruz brevets. He is very mellow and seems more than happy to learn the art of crewing
Tom
I have known Tom since 2005 or 2006. We put together and rode a fleche together in the rain. He is much faster than me and hates to stop for any length of time so I had a tough time keeping up with him on brevets. He also is known as the guy who rides in SPD sandals. Tom has lots of crewing experience an soloed the 508 in 2004, the year of the nasty winds
Chuck
Hadn’t met Chuck before but I am sure rode a bit with him at the SF 600k this year. Chuck has soloed the 508 and has crewed 5 or 6 solos to successful finishes. He has lots of brutal lights which are going to come in handy heading down Townes Pass at midnight hitting 40-50 MPH.
Stuff
Other than having every bike tool on hand as well as tubes, tubes, tubes, I am bringing three bikes. My main bike is a Speedvagen with clip on aerobars. It has Reynolds Attack carbon wheels and a 50/34 up front and a 12-25 in the back. Gears good for everything except Townes Pass. I have to ride 200 miles to get to Townes and it is 10 miles and 4,000 feet. I may be able to make it up on fresh legs but once at the top I still have 300 miles to go and need fresh legs. I would be beat taking this bike up Townes. Over the past 3-4 months I have been riding it to get used to the aerobars. You just can’t throw aerobars on a bike and be comfy. You have to get your legs and upper body used to them. By the time of this race I could have fallen asleep in them I was so dialed in.
My back up bike is almost identical to the Speedvagen but without aerobars. If the SV gives out I will transfer the bars to my Green Vanilla. It has the same gearing but has Open Pro wheels. These wheels will be much better if the winds pick up like last year.
My third bike is a new bike for me. It is a Monster Cross bike capable of using 2”+ tires. I will not have cross tires on it but I brought a set for one particular downhill with terrible roads that just eat your standard wheels. A buddy broke his bars on that section of road this year. The bike was built by Paul Taylor. It has a 44/32/22 up front and a 12-27 in the back and uses Industry Nine disc brake wheels. This bike will be used for riding up Townes Pass, down KelBaker and any other uphill later in the race if I start to poop out. Tom switched out the cross tires for the Michelin Pro 2 25mm tires since the first time I plan to get on it is for riding up Townes.
Trip down to start
I woke up Friday morning and out of the blue my left forearm is killing me. It is very tight as if I have some nerve damage. There was no indication of this Thursday evening and I cannot think of anything that would have brought this on. I leave home about 7:30ish to drive south to pick up my crew on the way to Santa Clarita. All the way down my arm continued to hurt and it seemed to move up my arm toward my shoulder. I tired to remember if when you have a heart attack does the pain start in your chest and move to your arm or start at your arm and move to your chest. I get to Tom’s place in Mountain View and run over the van with him waiting for Roland who will be dropped off by his wife. I mention the arm pain to Tom but just casually as I do not want him to think I am already coming up with excuses. But the damn thing is really painful and tight. Roland shows up and we jump in the van to get on the road to pick up Chuck in Morgan Hill. We stop by Chuck’s beautiful estate in Morgan Hill; load him into the van grab some gas and we are on our way. A little later than I would have wanted but we should have no problem with bike or van inspection as I have done this before and Tom and Chuck are experience with the check in as well.
We stopped for lunch at an In and Out burger and noticed the Taylor was coming loose up on the rack. I think it may be the heat that is melting the foam portion of the claw on the lack-Jaw bike rack. I reposition the bike and add a tie down. The rack allows for both wheels to remain on the bike and both wheels are ratcheted onto the rack for extra security. Well as we are approaching the Grape Vine I hear Roland say “Cross bike down” and I start looking in the side view mirror for a bike tumbling down Hwy 5. What had happened is that the lock Jaw portion of the rack had failed but the bike had just fallen sideways since the wheels were secured. We pull over and remount the Taylor on the fork mount rack without a front tire. I was so freaked out thinking I had lost my new bike and so relieved it did not even have a scratch on it. Tom had been driving since In and Out and resumed driving duty. It is about 100 out and has been for most of the drive. We had the A/C on full blast to keep cool and when Tom gunned it to re-enter the freeway the AC compressor went out. We smelt burning rubber which turned out to be the belt. I believe when the AC went out the AC pulley froze, we smelt burning rubber but then the pulley became freewheeling again and everything was well again. Athou no AC now. The crew was bummed and I was worried about the serpentine belt since it runs everything including the power steering, power brakes, alternator, and the cooling. If you lose that belt you are done and would need a tow. It seemed to hold up to race headquarters and we got the bikes and van inspected. Tom and Roland were using their smart phones to see if they could find someone who could fix it, otherwise it would be hot for the crew this weekend. I had a bit of sympathy for them since they were volunteering but hey, I’m not getting any AC this weekend : )
We attended the mandatory meeting and met up with the usual crowd of crazy’s. Most of the folks who ride these things are just your normal next door neighbor type. Very few of us look good wearing a helmet compared with the pros you see at any of the tours who look like they were born with helmets on. I have to say we are a weird looking bunch of folks.
After the meeting we hit the Albertsons for ice, water and crew food for the weekend then head back to the hotel where I get to bed about 9pm.
Pre-race
I am up at 6ish for the 7am start. At 6:30 I get on my bike and ride the half mile to the start hotel, get some coffee and sit down with Paul V who is doing the relay this year. That lasts about 10 minutes then figure I might as well go out side to see who is out there. I wander around saying hello to all the folks I know and wishing them a great ride. Then I grab my bike and wait the next 10 minutes for the start. I am right next to Bill Walton so we chat a bit about both of us having grown up in San Diego. BTW my arm is still in pain and I am really worried about getting to mile 25 and having to tell my crew I am done.
Stage 1 - Start to California City, 82 miles, 6,200”
7:00 finally comes and we all ride out together for the first 5 miles. I ride up and down the group to talk to racers like Susan F (Scarlet Macaw), Adam B (Rock Rabbit) and meet a few others. This section and the first 25 miles is a great place to meet new riders and find out their story. Once we turn into San Francisquito Canyon at mile 5 the race is on. I always make a point to be as far back as possible so not to get caught up with faster riders. This is a time trial after all so being up front will only get me carried away. By being in the back I do not have to worry about too many riders passing me and I actually get to do the passing. As we ride along I chat up a few riders including the Texas Tortuous (tandem couple), Frank who ran the Badwater 135 ultra and is riding this race to complete the Desert Cup, Jim in the classic division who I have ridden many brevet with and Black Sheep who is also going for the Desert Cup and has and artificial leg from the knee down. I kid him that I hope he does not plan to pull out a fresh leg at the half way point. My arm is still in pain and I am finding myself holding it against my chest like in a sling and thinking this is not good. I am riding with one arm and I have over 500 miles to go. Well I drop into the aerobars and off I go up and down thru the canyons looking for my crew who have to wait at mile 25ish. I have two bottles and that is it until I see them. It is slightly overcast so the temps are fine. I keep leapfrogging with Jim and the tandem as we go up and down the hills. Jim is in the classic division which means he has to ride with only 7 speeds and has to use downtube shifters on a steel bike. Not too bad but the killer is you are not allowed to use clipless pedals and have to use toe clips. He is doing well and should be killing me but we keep seeing each other and so we talk a bit here and there but not too long as we are not allowed to ride together. As I approach the section of road where all the crew are waiting I realize my arm is improving. At the start I would say my arm was at 50% and now it is creeping up to 80%. I am ecstatic. Last week I was worried about the heat but last night I was only worried about my arm. If I can get my arm back then I will be in good shape. I pass the crew, exchange bottles and off for what is a great downhill into the desert. This downhill is very fast and I hit 46 MPH. As you come off the hill you hit a road that just goes straight forever. There are lots of roads like this out here but it still amazes me how far they go. I am moving but not as fast as last year which is great. Last year we had tremendous tailwinds which pushed me thru this section in the high 20’s but now I riding along in the low 20’s. Since last year we had such nasty headwinds on day two I smile hoping the lack of tailwinds means I will be able to get thru day two this year. My crew is leapfrogging me and I am keeping on my schedule of one bottle of Hammer Perpetum per hour. I have told my crew to put 1.5 scoops of Perpetum in each bottle and a shot of Hammer gel for taste and calories. This along with straight water should work for quite a while. The crew waits at each corner to let me know when to turn and also to remind me to come to almost a complete stop or face a 15 minute time penalty if caught. I see the van more often than last year which is nice but they are stopping more than needed. But this gives Roland a chance to get lots of pictures which is great. Eventually I head up the Windmill climb and turn right toward Mojave. These hills are long but not tall so on some of them you can stay in the aerobars. The downhills are the same so you get long gradual downhills in the aerobars and they are fast and fun. I keep seeing the van and they have not mentioned the AC issue so I feel better. Then I see the van off the road with the hood up but still then send me forward. However, the next time by they stop me around mile 60 and tell me the engine noise is getting worse and smelling bad. Both Tom and Roland have smart phones and figure this is the do or die point to find a rental car. They load me up with water and head eventually to Lancaster to get an SUV rental car. They tell me to wait 20 miles down the road at time check 1 in California City until I hear from them. If they get a car they will call and send me on my way otherwise I am heading out into no-mans land and I may not get cell reception. I head out on course and worry all the way to Cali City. I do not want to have to come back next year to get last year’s monkey off my back. I am here now and 70 miles into this thing. I see Nicole, Jim’s GF and crew, and tell her the story and ask her to keep an eye on me. In the next 15 miles or so she is out on the road with bottle handoff and bananas for me. By the time I get to time station 1 she has recruited 2-3 other teams to keep an eye on me as she needs to get back to Jim. I cannot tell you how special it made me feel that folks who I have never met started to fill my bottles and stuffing gel packs into my pockets. I hung around for maybe 45 minutes until I talked to Tom who said they had a SUV and to get going.
Stage 2, California City to Trona, 70 miles, 4,200”
So I take off like a bat out of hell and am feeling great. My arm is now at about 95% so it is now off the table of problems. I get about 5 miles down the road when the road surface changes. I hit a very minor bump, hear a twang and look at a wobbling front wheel. One of my 20 front spokes broke. I stop, pull the spoke out, open up my brakes a bit and continue down the road. I have a spare set of wheels in the van so just have to wait until the crew gets here to change it out. It is not that bad but there are downhills that I would not want to ride down in excess of 40 MPH on 19 spokes. I continue to get fantastic support from about 3 crews out on the road. Sockeye Salmon, Black Sheep, and Coon Hound are all over me. Eventually my crew fly by in a new GMC SUV but since there was no factory rack they were not able to transfer over my Mega Road Warrior rack system. I tell them I need my spare front wheel but it is still in the van. They could not bring everything so chose what they thought was most important. I continue on the wobbly wheel then stop and ask to try the Industry nine wheel off the Taylor. There is just no way I am going to hit high speeds on this wheel with confidence. The I9 rim is too wide to fit inside my brake pads. I continue riding then stop again as the wheel is now rubbing on the pads. We try opening the brakes more and I see there is a quick release cam and flip it. It still rubs but got me thinking we may be able to fit the I9 wheel in. Sure enough it fit perfectly and I am set to go. So now my SV road bike has a disc brake up front. But it is smooth and stable and just in time for the long downhill into Trona at time station 2.