So, we needed a day to figure out what to do about my rim, and the winds were 35mph headwinds in the morning. The timing stinks being this close to Glacier National Park, but a rest day makes sense.

We tried every business in town, but couldn't find a rim for my bike. I did find a 20 inch kids bike, but I was not quite sure how to swap out the axle since it was only a single speed. I was hoping for a 7 speed rim all setup.

While exploring the towns resources, we made the decision to go to glacier national park, and wait for the sun road to open. It is rumored to open next week, and we need a few days for a new rim to arrive anyway.....also we are having Dee send us a rim from my parts pile. We just need my current rim to make it another 70 miles until the post office. Yeah, we could have shipped everything to cut bank, but waiting that long in Cut Bank would be boring.....we would all rather wait at Glacier. So, how to get this rim to stop splitting?

Well, while exploring hardware stores for ideas, we stopped and played some fooseball at a diner, and then at the town museum.

Like every town in this area, there are grain facilities by the railroad tracks. The farmers bring their own grain here during harvest.

So, we have 2 rims being sent to Babb. We rested and toured Cut Bank. We patched up my rim, hopefully good enough to hold for 70 miles.

Take a look at the rim picture from yesterday, and you can see the rim is splitting out the side. We need a way to hold that side in. Here was our temporary fix.

Here is what we did. We lowered the tire pressure so the tire was just barely in the bead of the rim. I cut two strips of rubber from a black bungee cord, and held them up against the side of the rim with dental floss. I wrapped that in duct tape. This seemed to hold the rim sidewall in place nicely. We then inflated the tire to the proper pressure, which tightened the floss and tape as the tire inflated......the rim sidewall seemed to stay in place perfectly.

After this photo was taken, we added a layer of plastic from a pop bottle to protect the tape. We considered using rubber from an old tube, but it is tough cutting up a working tube when we already have a shortage...we are unable to find the right sized tubes even at bike shops (sold out). If the plastic doesn't work, we can switch to a chunk of rubber tube tomorrow....we need something to protect the tape and floss from wear.

A quick test ride in the parking lot and the rim seems stable. The sidewall is staying in place.

Normally we count the miles we use to tour towns, but we walked this town since I didn't want to strain my rim. We walked just under 10 miles today by my estimates.....but I guess I won't count it.

Fingers crossed, hopefully it holds for 70 miles.

0 miles (1209 total)