Its hard to say precisely where the line lays, but I’m certain I’m well on the wrong side of it. I never notice lines as I pass over them but I can usually tell after I have because it feels suddenly liberating to leave reason, sensibility, and convention behind. I find them very restrictive – claustrophobic, almost. They force me into the same old way of thinking, always within a set of parameters of what is accepted. Parameters are a good thing, to be sure – especially for everyone else – but since I wasn’t involved in defining The Universal Limits of Reason and Sensibility, I can’t be sure they’re calibrated correctly so I prefer to roam freely and am quite satisfied to be considered crazy for the time being.
Just like most of us, I started down La Vie Velominatus rolling along on the wheels my first bike arrived with. I trusted them to be indestructible and always carry me about safely. Then one day while racing my friend, I locked up the back wheel coming into a corner too hard and destroyed it, the illusion of The Indestructible Wheel riding up the road alongside the friend I had only moments earlier been locked in shoulder-to-shoulder battle with. It was also at this precise moment that I faced the reality that a wheel is not only destructible, but a basic element facilitating productive locomotion aboard a bicycle.
I spent the next month shingling the roof of my family’s cabin in Northern Minnesota earning the money to buy a replacement wheel. And, having recently shingled a roof, I was suddenly a Shingling Authority, discussing in depth the merits of choice in color, material, and shingle pattern of every roof I passed by. Similarly, upon having been subjected to the myriad choices of replacement wheel, after purchasing my replacement wheel, I was a new inductee into the The Order of the Wheel and noticed (and commented upon) every bicycle wheel that passed me by. Due more to the volume of by observations than their merit, I was soon thereafter indulged by my Cycling Sensei – my father – to help him curate the wheels for his custom Eddy Merckx.
At the time, choices were more limited than they are today; quality of hub varied greatly, as did the rims, spokes, and tires. Everything was limited to an alloy of some kind, though you could have any spoke pattern you wanted, as long as it was 3-cross. At the time there was also a choice between tubular and clincher, which was a relatively new option. We labored over the choices and wound up having two wheelsets built – one clincher and aero; one box-section and tubular – a choice I stand by today.
That was my awakening, but nevertheless, I have throughout my life as a Velominatus had only one wheelset per bike. The lightest for Bike #1. Whenever Bike #n came into play, it received its own wheelset; as with all the other parts on Bikes #2…n; a hand-me-down from Bike #n-1’s upgrade. (Using the Hand-Me-Down Upgrade Methodology, a single upgrade improves not just one bicycle, but several – with the added benefit of filling a longer period of time moving bits from one noble steed to the next.)
It was only recently, during preparation for the 2012 edition of Keepers Tour over the cobbles of Northern France and Vlaanderen, that I took my own place in the realm of the Specialty Wheelset – which also afforded me another of those moments when I was strangely aware of having crossed one of Those Lines. After all, a big, fat Dutchman can’t be expected to ride over the pavé of Paris-Roubaix – unleashing the awesome wattage of his artillery – on just any old wheelset; certainly not any of those wheels which I already owned. This called for a set of wheels purpose-built for the occasion. Rims, hubs, spokes, and tires were selected with great care and assembled (four times) in a wine-enhanced rite.
Riding these wheels is a pleasure highlighted by the fact that I don’t always ride them. They hang on the workshop wall in a wheel bag, waiting for the Right Occasion to ride them. Those occasions are often anticipated several days – if not weeks – in advance and deliberated over carefully. Then, when the choice is finally made to pop them in for the ride, I wrap myself in the delta between my regular wheels and these. This contrast, like the negative space in a great painting, is the area in which I dwell while riding them. The difference in tire type, width, spoke pattern, weight. The way the wheel feels when the pedal is engaged. The way the wheels and tires flex over a bump in the road or hug the pavement in a corner.
I’ve since embarked on a journey to get each road bike in the house – mine as well as the VMH’s – on the same drive train in order to be able to maximize the wheel-swapping effect. Each wheel is a new language, each tire a new dialect, and inner tube a new turn of phrase. To paraphrase the nursery rhyme: one for sorrow, two for joy, three for hills and four for stones.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
FYI- Competitive Cyclist in USA just put a Mavic pair of tubs on sale 40% off. Maybe just today. Durty French Wheels.
Thanks as always @frank
I'm just winding up to buy some handmade Velocity rims on Novatech hubs for rainy days and all round trainers and ...
According to my LBS I am a lucky bastard.
I got a set of Sram S30 AL Race clinchers on ebay for £420, no-one had bid and I didn't expect to win them but did. While using them on the Etape Caledonia a guy rode up to me with the same wheels and I said "Nice wheels". He said no they're shit I've already blown the bearings and broken spokes which put me on a downer as they rode nicely. Anyway 3 months ago I broke a spoke and asked the LBS if they would help. They did and I got a brand new replacement wheel, Sram said they'd had some problems with them. Four rides later at about 300km another spoke went (well the nipple stripped). LBS sent it back but Sram are discontinuing them so send back the front as well and we will send you a set of the new Zipp 101s.
I should get them by the end of the week. Happy days.
El Gato is ready to spend his days lounging in the sun, stretching in the grass, and chasing a bird or two...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/gallery-freire-career-retrospective
Crazy that his career, and three World Championships, nearly never was. Goodbye Oscar! Thanks for the racing!
@ChrisO
Fair points indeed. I can't justify aero wheels for my riding anyway. But they do look good.... And I'm assuming obsessions about all aspects of the bike my riding will hit me at some stage (if this crazy website is anything to go by)
Agree entirely. Still happens though. Just depends on how much of a fuck you give about what other people think, I suppose. I have to confess to finding cycling to be a strange sport in this respect
Interesting timing... and my ride made me think of this write up today.
During my last criterium, I knocked the shit out of my Bontrager RXL's (swear I hit the same f'ing hole 6 laps in a row!) and have been putting off doing anything about it until the last few days it's gotten bad enough that I don't think I can delay getting them trued up any longer.
I must point out that my delay wasn't driven by the fact that I love my RXL's and therefore would miss them, but rather the fact that I've never trued a wheel and I don't trust the under-experienced LBS staff that my "A" wheels would certainly end up with (small town w/one shop).
So anyway, I wasn't too stressed out about it because I knew (or I thought I knew) that I had a nice set of Mavic Open Pro's laced to Dura-Ace HB7700 32H hubs (Silver-Silver-Silver) sitting in the wings ready for their moment to once again shine (literally). There silky smooth (deadly silent) action is at times borderline creepy... but in a good way. It's just that after riding the RXL's and becoming accustomed to the roar of the bontrager (DT?) hubs, the impossibly silent Dura-Ace hubs take some getting used to at first. These things are so stinking silent, that I spent the first 15 minutes of my ride hearing noises that I'd never heard before (or forgotten even existed)... every bump I could hear this clanging-rattling noise that sounded annoyingly identical to that sound when something has worked it's way loose and is now rattling its way deep into my psyche. Turns out it was my car keys that I casually tossed in the empty pocket of my jersey... who knew?
None of this has anything to do with the point of my story... as it turns out, something that I had completely forgotten about over the last three months, has come back to bite me in the ass. Turns out my trusted Mavic's are in worse shape than my RXL's. Back in June I raced my Mavic's in a particularly nasty (e.g. very rough surface) criterium because I didn't want to chance destroying my RXL's for the following day's road race stage... of course, as expected, I knocked both front and back out of true (bad). Following that race, I stuffed 'em in the bag and for the same reasons mentioned above, delayed getting them fixed... over time, I had completely forgotten about the issue.
Today's anticipated ride with the Mavic's ended up being somewhat of a disappointment... wobbly front and back wheels, making it hard to brake and clearly diminishing the ride quality was a deserved slap in the face. I was convinced that every rider I passed today was looking at me with disdain... shaking their head and waving their finger as if to suggest, you know better! My lack of mechanical skills (too lazy to learn) and apathy for the LBS caught up with me today and reminded me that I need to get serious about learning to wrench and maintain my own equipment... lesson learned!
@frank "On a side note, I find it ironic that there are such firm beliefs on what constitutes a racing wheelset and what is acceptable for group rides when most people I've ridden with are unable to distinguish between a group ride and a race."
I agree .... yet to go on a club "casual" ride that is quite clearly stated at the start that we should all keep together as a group and swap turns for the enjoyment of all, that doesnt turn into an all out smash fest at the first available opportunity .... thoughts on how to turn this mentality around .... surely we can all look pro and still stay together as a group and not race.
@JFT
See Rule 65.
@Nate Yes... Rule #65. It's on my radar! I've been reading online wheel building and how to true a wheel articles for most of the night. I could very well dive into those Mavic's as soon as tomorrow.
@tessar Enve SES feel like the brake track / black block is made of sandpaper and sounds like it in the dry. A recent Rule 9 ride proved that they at best scrub off a little speed on fast descents but you would'nt want to stop in a hurry, now my Nemesis / Royce Spring Classic wheels have become my rain wheels, double bubble.
But I do love the Enve SES (6.7), less noticeable than my previous 45's in a cross wind (dunno how they do that). I'm running them on Veloflex Criyerium tubs and it is a match made in heaven.
I may not race, be too fat to climb, but when i'm on the flat and rolling nicely along about 35kph (with a breeze up my arse) there is no other place I would rather be. A long while ago I used to listen to music on 4 hour plus rides, now I just listen to my rims !!!
Also planning another home built wheel set for my upcoming N+1 as I need a set of clinchers that will hold a 33mm tyre for fire / gravel roads. Definitely H Plus Son Archetype Rims, 32 hole 3x (probably DT Comps or Sapim equivalent) but can't decide between CK hubs of another set of Royce ??? If it helps the frame is British Steel (well Columbus, but fabbed in UK), gruppo will be Campag (naturally) with a smattering of 3T and Fizik. I have CK on my Enve SES 6.7 and love them, also have CK on my singlespeed monster / bastard cross. Head says stick with CK heart says Royce (Made in UK, 15 miles from where I live)
Decisions decisions.
Happiness in being sat on the floor of my lounge, watching re-runs of the Spring Classic, lacing, tightenning and truing a new set of wheels with a glass of Pinot Noir.
@snoov
Now here's a thing - my LBS said that getting warranty on wheels for broken spokes just doesn't happen. They've pushed the rep a bit though on my recent troubles and I seem to be getting some sort of goodwill on the rebuild. I suspect that the rebuild won't cause me any problems at all.
Also my Fulcrums now have a Gruppo freehub and fresh rubber for the weekend - so I've now got two sets of wheels. None of your carbone aero admittedly but two sets of wheels nevertheless.
Only downside - I'll be running red wheels on a black and white bike on Saturday.