I briefly considered doing an April Fools’ joke for today’s post… but since this won’t go live until late on April 1st, it would land awkwardly. Which, honestly, might be its own kind of joke.
Either way: welcome to April. Somehow, unbelievably, John and I are still out here riding our bikes across the country. I can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that we’ve pedaled all the way into a new month.
Fair warning: today’s post gets a little nerdy with bike parts. I promise there’s a payoff if you stick with me.
Those of you who’ve been reading since the early days might remember that way back on Day 3 I broke a spoke. We replaced it the next day and tensioned it to roughly match the others. The wheel still had a pretty noticeable wobble, so when we hit Tucson on Day 7, I had the amazing folks at a bike shop there re-tension the whole wheel.
After that? The wheel felt great. Rode smooth. No drama. We all happily forgot about it.
Fast‑forward to Day 23, our rest day. I’m cleaning my bike and casually notice something you never want to notice: cracks in the rim of that same wheel… right at several spoke holes.
That’s what we in the cycling world call “uh oh.”
Now here’s where the cavalry shows up.
My incredibly amazing wife Kirsten had flown out to meet us in Kerrville on Day 21 and stayed until this morning. The moment we realized the wheel was toast, she immediately went into problem‑solving mode: phone out, calling bike shops, hunting down a replacement wheel like it was her full‑time job.
The tricky part? Wheels are not “just wheels.” The replacement needed to be very specific:
- Rear wheel
- Shimano HG freehub
- 12×142 thru axle
- Centerlock disc
- 700c
- Wide enough for 35–50mm tires
- 160mm rotor
- 11‑speed cassette (11–36)
I gave her the full spec list, and even knowing that some shops might… assume things… she forged ahead anyway. She called six shops between Fredericksburg and Austin. No luck. Either close, or “we have one but it’s wrong in three critical ways.”
At the same time, I called my friend Dan, who recently moved back to Katy, TX, just to see if he had a lead. His suggestion was simple and brilliant: Facebook Marketplace.
And sure enough — success. Dan found a brand‑new “take‑off” wheelset in Austin that looked promising. I reached out, and the seller was willing to meet me at the hotel in Austin that I would arrive at the next day.
Not only did he meet up without hesitation, he went above and beyond:
- Threw in extra tubeless tape and valves
- Included sealant
- Found me rotors so I didn’t have to swap mine
- Generally just acted like a genuinely good human
It took a small army of people who cared enough to jump in and help, but by the end of the day… I had solid wheels under me again.
The wheels came with 43c GravelKing Tires — with tubes. I asked my guide if I should convert them to tubeless.
“Eh, you’ll probably be fine,” he said.
Two miles into the ride today: flat tire.
Frank helped me swap the tube and looked at me deadpan and said,
“You’re converting these to tubeless tonight, aren’t you?”
I believe my exact response was an annoyed, defeated:
“Yes. Absolutely.”
For the non‑bike folks: tubeless means there’s no inner tube. Instead, you run liquid sealant inside the tire. Small puncture? The sealant plugs it almost instantly and… you keep riding like nothing happened. It’s basically magic.
The catch? Setting it up is a pain.
You need:
- Perfectly taped rims
- Tubeless valves that actually seal
- Enough air all at once to seat the tire
- Sealant in the tires and not on your clothes, shoes, floor, and soul
Frank and I spent hours converting my new wheels. Somewhere in the process we discovered my tubeless valves were bad, which led to:
- Calling Dennis way later than he wanted to be called
- Pulling my old wheels out of the trailer
- Opening half‑sealed tires in the hotel bathtub to contain sealant
- Soapy water. Everywhere.
- Skating across the tile floor like cartoon characters, narrowly avoiding serious injury
Once we scavenged the valve stems from my old wheels, everything finally worked. The tires seated. Sealant went in. Air stayed where air is supposed to stay. Victory.
I’m making this sound clean and linear. It absolutely was not.
So if there’s a takeaway from Day 25, it’s this:
Thank you.
Thank you to Kirsten, who turned a cracked rim into a logistics mission and refused to give up.
Thank you to Frank for the flat help and tubeless intervention.
Thank you to Dan for the clutch Facebook Marketplace idea.
Thank you to Dennis for answering the phone way too late.
Thank you to JD — the wheel guy — for being ridiculously generous.
I quite literally would not be riding today without all of you.
And now, with fresh wheels, fresh sealant, and April officially underway… we keep pedaling east.
