OpenStreetMap
This morning I went to the bike shop and bought the parts required to get the mountain bike running again. Ended up just getting a $30 Shimano 32T middle chainring to replace the really cheap stock 32T ring. I've not tried it yet but it certainly looks a lot nicer than the previous one. It's got much better chain pickup ridge...things on it too.
The other purchase was a new set of spokes for the rear wheel. The left side spokes were snapping due to the disc brake tension and the right side were chewed up from when the chain got stuck between them and the cassette.
The newly laced wheel is sitting on the bedroom floor at the moment. I followed the procedure described by the late Sheldon Brown and it ended up being much simpler than previously thought. It took about 20mins to thread all the spokes.
Tomorrow they get tensioned up and the wheel gets trued. Or, at least, that process starts. Chances are it will be a long and frustrating process but we'll see how it goes.
Not a great deal of streets got mapped today but the ones that did were rather hilly. You always need to be careful mapping streets on a pushbike when they come off one called Mountain View Drive
Today's changeset is here.
Discussion
Comment from burto on 20 July 2009 at 13:38
If you buy this book (not expensive) and read it (preferably twice), you will have no problems tensioning your wheel:
http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php
Comment from Biogenesis_ on 21 July 2009 at 00:11
Thanks for the link :). I'll look into buying it if the spoke tweaking takes too long. I'd just need to get permission to use my parents' credit card on the Internet, they're typical paranoid baby boomers.
Might need to get a Visa Debit card...
Comment from Biogenesis_ on 21 July 2009 at 01:15
After about 40mins of tweaking the wheel seems to be coming along nicely. The diameter is constant and the lateral wobble is within ~1mm. The dishing is still a fair way out but that's a simple, although time consuming, adjustment.
All in all it's been a great learning experience. Can't wait to try it out on the road :).