Two weeks ago, I was leading out the Wednesday night Bow Cyclist Club ride. Once on the way back and once when we got back to the shop, some of the riders mentioned to me that my rear wheel was not true. It had a slight wobble to it.
Mark (club president and the Parts Manager at Bow Cycle) was there and I mentioned it to him. So he pulled the wheel off and put it on the truing stand. He used the spoke wrench to work most of the wobble out, but couldn’t get it perfect. He was looking closely at the wheel and noticed this:
These are the stock alloy rims that came with the bike in 2016. I don’t know what cracked the rim, but it marked the end of its life. I limped home from the shop and started working out what to replace the rim with. It’s been a couple of weeks of sporadic emails with Mark, but today all was ready and I picked up my bike with its new Mavic Cosmic Pro UST wheels.
Right now my thumbs are in so much pain. The wheels came with some free tires, while I had bought some much better tires late last year. I intended to simply take the cheap tires off and put the better tires on the new wheels, but the new wheels are really, really tight. It was so much work to get the cheap tires off and then even more work to get the good tires on. I expect to not be able to grip anything tomorrow.
But it’s done now. Tomorrow’s forecast isn’t too promising, but I might get a chance to go for a ride. I’d better not get a flat. I doubt I would be able to fix it roadside. It took two hours to change these tires tonight.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that they cost more than our house insurance, a fact that Tammy keeps reminding me about. 😘
Updated Saturday
I went for a 110 km ride with the Bow Cyclists today on the new wheels and they worked great. The only hiccup was the long, fast downhill into Cochrane. These wheels have a deeper cross-section and more prone to get caught by gusts of wind. I had a couple of wobbles on the downhill, but nothing too dramatic. I slowed down and took it easy.
They sure look nice.
Since my Norco Valence is now back on “rollers duty”, I took the carbon fibre wheels off and put the heavier alloy ones back on. I made an offer to Miranda that she could try the good wheels on her bike, but she declined when I told her that they would be more difficult to brake with.
So I put $1600 wheels on Ian’s $300 road bike. Ridiculous, you say? Mais oui!.
“Cool” looking bike Ian…