Southern California - Tour de Fail II

I am just trying to get my Century a Month done for May. Is that too much to ask? Last week excessive heat and wussage on the part of certain unnamed parties turned a Van Nuys to Santa Barbara century into an 80-something mile ride. No biggie I said - I'll just do a solo coastal century the next week. Easy.

So I start out from my house on my steelie around 8:30 this morning with nice riding conditions - overcast and slightly cool. Around Torrey Pines I attached myself like a tick to back of a peloton of DeWalt team riders out for what I assume was an easy recovery ride (otherwise I would have to say they sucked since I could keep up with them). They turned back in Encinitas and I continued to ride on to Oceanside in the company of a guy from Chicago wearing "Impeach Bush" socks. In Carlsbad we encountered this guy:

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r143/Indolent58/dog.jpg

I never ceases to amaze me how dogs put up with **** their owners subject them to. Cute, but I gave the dog the name of a good lawyer. The Chicago guy turned back at Oceanside harbor and I continued to have an uneventful solo ride up to my brother's house in Dana Point. I hung out there for a while and drank coffee, but I wasn't technically posing since I didn't pay for the coffee.

When I go to leave, I do something that I must admit I rarely do in the middle of a ride. I checked the wheels. I discover that the back wheel is fairly out of true and rubbing the pads - not that I had noticed this while riding. Assuming the wheel just decided to go a bit wonky I fiddled with the rear brake to get it to clear and was ready to start back until I noticed this:

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r143/Indolent58/rim.jpg

Damn! :mad::mad: #$&#^@#() double damn! :mad::mad::mad:

These are Open Pros. They are NOT supposed to do this. Never having had a wheel fail on me like this, I had no idea whether I could chance riding 50 miles back on this. If I had been in BFE in the backcountry somewhere I would have had no choice, but since I was at my brother's house I concluded that a ride back to SD was the wisest course of action.

Wull sheeeiiit! Now I HAVE to do century on the 31st. Can't do it tomorrow due to previous commitments. Plus I will have to put a black Alex rear wheel on my white and blue Stowe until I can rebuild or replace the ruined silver Open Pro. The aesthetic horror. :eek::cry::cry:

That wouldn't happen if you were using Shimano components.

That wouldn't happen if you were using Shimano components.

Open Pro laced to an Ultegra hub. Pinhead.

what do you expect, your japanese hub, working with a french rim and in between them swiss spokes.

BTW: I have seen more of the newer model open pros fail.. I still have some of the original open pro cd rims that are going on 15+ years with no issues.

Dan, do the TDF with us on the 31st.

Dan, do the TDF with us on the 31st.

Distance?

In Carlsbad we encountered this guy:

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r143/Indolent58/dog.jpg


Luckily he was doing this in California, bestiality is illegal in 33 states.

Open Pro laced to an Ultegra hub. Pinhead.

NEWMAN!

I just bought a pair of Open Pros (on Ultegra hubs) and that picture has totally bummed me out.

I just bought a pair of Open Pros (on Ultegra hubs) and that picture has totally bummed me out.

Don't be. I got them on sale for $200 at Performance and did not have a wheel builder re-tension them. If I had, I suspect it never would have happened. If your set is handbuilt or you have had the spoke tension checked out I wouldn't worry.

Don't be. I got them on sale for $200 at Performance and did not have a wheel builder re-tension them.

Same here. Guess I better put that on the to-do list.

Distance?

Same as the HH. Kinda far for you to drive, but it's a great route, one of my favorites.