Light At The End Of The Tunnel

I’ve ridden it a few times now to work.  Distance is about 24Km. The Specialized Rockhopper is good to ride.  However, there are reports around the web of the poor quality of some of the components.  I have hit upon an issue with my front wheel.  The other day I pumped the tyres up and locked out the suspension as I mainly cycle on the road.  On one section there is a slight incline, and rather than change down a gear, I stood up and powered over it.

A couple of 100 metres down the road I had a puncture.  Taking the tyre off and examining the inner tube revealed that the puncture was on the rim side of the inner tube.  Virtually unheard of, unless you trap the inner tube when fitting the tyre.  I couldn’t see anything at the time to cause the issue, so fixed up the puncture and refitted it and was back on my way.

The other night after climbing a hill the same thing happened. When I took the inner tube out, and then removed the tyre I could see a sort of lump under the tape that goes round the rim and covers the spoke holes.  It seems my rim was never properly checked for quality , as the spoke holes were not properly cleaned of swarf . So as I stood up putting more weight on the front tyre, this pushed the inner tube more into the rim, and hence against the bits of swarf.

This is annoying, especially when I was trying to diagnose the issue via the light from a bus stop.

Come on Specialized you can do better.