Southeast - Sunday 7/15/07 Ride Report: DNF

I set out to do between 40-50 today. It was a beautiful Sunday, temperatures in the low 80s, with moderate humidity. I felt fully recovered from last weekend's heat exhaustion and my adventures in the batting cages, I had prepared some bottles with water and a Propel/salt solution, I found a good system for carrying my camera, and I was all set to go.

It started well enough, and I felt good on the hills.

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Alas, the ride was cut short by a catastrophic wheel failure. Two broken spokes in the rear wheel, caused by a freak collision with my left heel. The rear wheel immediately dished to the side of the breaks, causing it to lock up against the rear brake. It was all I could do to stop without crashing while clipped in.

So there I was on the side of the road at North Anna Battlefield Park, trying in vain to retrue the wheel, when along came Mike, 3 days into an 1800-mile charity ride from Washington, D.C. to Baton Rouge, LA. He and his two companions, Will and Matt, stopped and chatted for a few minutes. The fourth member of their team, Brian, was out on the road in a support van.

You can read about their ride here (http://www.capitoltocapitolride.org), and read their blog here (http://www.capitoltocapitolride.blogspot.com/).

Eventually I called my own support van (wife & kids in a Volvo wagon), and they came and rescued me.

Looks like I'll be back on the old Motobecane for a few weekends until my rear wheel gets fixed. :(

How do you get your heel anywhere near the rear wheel spokes?

With the left pedal at about 2:00 on the upstroke, I coasted briefly, and was twisting my foot to get a better cleat position when the cleat came loose and my foot nudged into the wheel, catching between the spokes and the chainstay.

Just checked -- a replacement Easton Circuit is going to run about $300. I think I'll look into repairing it first!

Anyone want to speculate on the odds of successfully repairing a mildly tacoed wheel with two broken spokes back to factory tension and true?

That is a weird mishap. Good thing you had a support van on standby.

I don't know much about wheels, but even if you have to get a new rim it should be less than $300.

Yes, as Velo Vol said it will be cheaper to replace the rim if need be. I had to replace the rim on my rear Ksyrium ssc and it was $125 with labor. Those Mavic rims are expensive.

So just a quick update on my rear wheel (see broken spoke picture above). My LBS took it without blinking, and patched it up nicely for around $20 parts & labor included. A quick shout out to Cobblestone Bicycles (http://cobblestonebikes.com/) in Ashland for doing a nice job and not trying to sell me anything more than what I needed.