Stevie Boy

So I got into a head-on crash a couple of days ago and completely totaled my carbon frame. The fork snapped off and the downtube has seperated carbon layers. But, I got around to looking at the front wheel and lo and behold, it was practically in mint condition. No cracks in the flange, or rim, no broken spokes. In fact, its barely out of true (haven't had a chance to do a thorough check, but looks to be only 1-3mm out of true horizontally?). The reason I'm posting is because I've always thought my front wheel was dainty and dangerous, but after this incident I'm feeling much more confident. I built the wheel using only half the spoke holes on a 36h CXP14, and a NOS campy hub. Used double butted wheelsmith spokes with radial lacing at fairly high tension. IMO this is empirical evidence that low spoke count wheels are not as dangerous as many would like us to think they are...

cedricbosch

Or maybe it says something about Giant's forks...

bianchiboy71

Just glad you're ok - that could have turned out much worse!
I'm always amazed when I lift one of my wheels to see how light it is considering how much weight it carries over so many miles.

Stevie Boy

*shrug* at that speed (~35km/h) and in that collision I'm surprised the downtube didn't completely fracture, so the fork going isn't a surprise.

Funny thing is, I crashed into a woman riding a department store steel bike with 36 3-cross front wheel and it looked like her frame was fine, but the front wheel was completely taco'd. I WISH that had happened to me...at least I have an extra wheel...

maddyfish

Glad you're ok.

jet sanchEz

Lets see some pics of the frame. Shudder.