but it's close enough. Every Sunday there's a big group ride hosted by one of the local shops, and there's typically a few different groups of varying skill levels and speeds. I went out with the ~31kph group and was enjoying the conversation as quite a few expats were in the same group. Roughly 15km into the ride as we're getting out into the country, I notice by front wheel has gone slightly out of true and loosened the brake QR to stop it rubbing, but didn't think much more of it.
Another 15km or so after that, we'd just come out of a roundabout and were waiting for someone to fix a flat and the wheel was still fine and hadn't gotten any worse, so I figured it was safe to ride on. After starting up again and getting up to speed, a few riders at the front started to break off in preparation for the town line sprint, so I started to accelerate after them when I start feeling a large amount of wobble and the bars begin to shake; I look down and see the wheel practically vibrating from side to side, and start feathering the brakes to slow down ASAP. After managing to bring the bike to a halt, my companion and I, as well as a number of the riders behind us that had stopped to see what happend started to examine the wheel. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Looks like I popped a spoke, should be able to keep riding once I remo...oh, that's two spokes, actually."
Companion: "Nope, there's three gone on the same side. If you baby it you can probably ride to the train station."
Me: "Oh look, here's another one, and another...and another...and another"
The total count: 9 spokes gone in under 500m
The wheelset was brand new and my bike is less than two months old. I've logged virtually every kilometer with my Forerunner, and have 810 kilometers on it. I've ridden over my fair share of frost heaves and potholes, but at 129 pounds dripping wet, I think I should be able to ride a 22 spoke front wheel.
Here's a picture of the wheel once I finally managed to get home, I've highlighted where the missing spokes go:
Picture here, too large to inline
I'm going to stop by the LBS tomorrow to see if they'll rebuild it under warranty, hopefully they'll be amicable
