Aarrrgh. Eight years ago, I bought a brand-new set of Rial wheels for my Neon from the Tire Rack. At the time, I only had two sets of race wheels and I needed a third so I had dry, wet, and intermediate (full-tread R-comp) options.
When I took a hiatus from NASA racing, a young lady who was also racing a Neon asked me to borrow a set of wheels. If some dude had asked me that, I’d have told him to fuck off. But because I’m an atavistic creature from the 1950s at heart, I let her borrow my Rials, which were perfect. She returned them two years later — dirty, dingy, scraped, and dented.
Tonight I decided to scrub and paint the wheels for this weekend’s AER race. Lo and behold, I pulled the wheels out — and saw that the lady in question had managed to lose one of the centering rings that came with the wheels. Well, this is what I deserve for being a perfect fedora-wearing gentleman, isn’t it? Next time, I’ll listen to Slick Rick.