I took the Griso for its MOT Monday this week. Local shop, they know me and can be quite pragmatic about MOTs. But, 2 minutes into the test and it’s “err MrW come and have a look at this”. Front tyre on the wrong way round, ie rotating against its markings. “It’s a fail I’m afraid, counts as a major defect”. They couldn’t swap it over there and then for lots of reasons so I rode home, whipped the wheel out and took it back next morning. And yes I did check if the hub is symmetrical, it’s not as neither the spacer nor the spindle seem to quite fit properly into the wheel hub from the other side. Anyway a couple of hours later they phoned - all done so I picked it up, refitted the wheel to the bike rode it to the workshop and a quick check of the nuts and bolts and another brake test and it had passed it’s MoT. I gave them a tenner for their trouble (they didn’t really want it but as I get free tea there it’s ok).
But the bike felt a bit weird when I rode it, which I put down to the tyre now being the right way round and I’d soon get used to it.
Scroll forward to today and I went to move the bike and it was as heavy as and as numb as - yup front tyre almost flat - 7psi in it. Feck. It’s either not been re-fitted properly or I’ve been really unlucky and got a puncture or, worst case, they’ve damaged the seals on the spoke end when changing the tyre over. I’ve blown it up to 65psi and soaped up the rim, tyre and valve and can’t see any leaks so it looks like it’s a worst case scenario and the seals on the spokes have got damaged. I haven’t got a bath or bowl big enough to get at least some of the spokes ends under water so I’m going to monitor it overnight and see how fast it’s going down.
Then what though. The MoT place is just a small workshop that does mainly MOts, tyres, and and few simple service Jobs on scoots and small older bikes. They won’t have the know how to fix the wheel and I doubt very much they’d ever admit that it could be their fault anyway. I think the Griso SE spoke ends are sealed with O rings but I have a receipt in the bike documents I got when I bought it from somewhere in Essex I think for adding a sealing system (silicon and 3m tape I think). I suppose that’s the route I will have to go down. Cast wheels from a non SE version is another option, or stump up for Kineo/Alpina or whatever aftermarket wheels. But they are mega bucks which I’m not spending on this bike.
But the bike felt a bit weird when I rode it, which I put down to the tyre now being the right way round and I’d soon get used to it.
Scroll forward to today and I went to move the bike and it was as heavy as and as numb as - yup front tyre almost flat - 7psi in it. Feck. It’s either not been re-fitted properly or I’ve been really unlucky and got a puncture or, worst case, they’ve damaged the seals on the spoke end when changing the tyre over. I’ve blown it up to 65psi and soaped up the rim, tyre and valve and can’t see any leaks so it looks like it’s a worst case scenario and the seals on the spokes have got damaged. I haven’t got a bath or bowl big enough to get at least some of the spokes ends under water so I’m going to monitor it overnight and see how fast it’s going down.
Then what though. The MoT place is just a small workshop that does mainly MOts, tyres, and and few simple service Jobs on scoots and small older bikes. They won’t have the know how to fix the wheel and I doubt very much they’d ever admit that it could be their fault anyway. I think the Griso SE spoke ends are sealed with O rings but I have a receipt in the bike documents I got when I bought it from somewhere in Essex I think for adding a sealing system (silicon and 3m tape I think). I suppose that’s the route I will have to go down. Cast wheels from a non SE version is another option, or stump up for Kineo/Alpina or whatever aftermarket wheels. But they are mega bucks which I’m not spending on this bike.
