For the first time on Sunday, I went out on my bike ride with a few euros in my saddle bag. 45km out of Paris en route to Rambouillet (actually I remember passing the Rambouillet city limits, so I was technically already inside Rambouillet), I heard a twang coming off my rear wheels and had the wheel wobbling. Had to stop by the roadside and wondering whether its better to ride on and catch a train back (which would have been a bad idea in hindsight, since I only had 10Euro with me!) or ride all the way back for 45km, including 2 tough hill climbs with the rear wheel wobbling all the way and without the rear brakes functional.
As a footnote to history, I decided on the latter choice, and cycled back to Paris… which was not such a bad idea as I read after the incident that a traditional road bike wheel with busted spoke can still be riden but with the annoyance of it not being in alignment. Since there’s quite a lot of spokes left it shouldn’t damage anything too much, unlike one of those modern spoke system with reduced number of spokes like the Campagnolo G3s etc.
Now the choice is to buy a new set of wheels or get the current Mavic CXP22 repaired with new spokes. I’m leaning towards new wheels. Other than the lust of having something new, the cost of rebuilding the CXP22 here in France would have been quite expensive… I’ve not checked yet but I believe that the cost of new spokes and manpower could be up to 100euro. For a few more hundred euros I’ll be the owner of something new.
The current choice is the American Classic 420. So far the cost of this on ebay germany is about 350 euro with Sapim Laser spokes, but I’ll see if I can get my hands on Sapim CX-Ray bladed spokes. I’ll have about 2 weeks to do this, dont thikn I can go on without riding for too long! Another choice would be the Easton Tempest II, but it looks like its quite difficult to get them here in France, and quite expensive as well. About the same price as Mavic Ksryium SLs.
nangka.org 