Thou shalt not covet…
Posted in Blog on 21. Mar, 2008
my new wheels. Do not cast thine eyes upon them with wanton lust, but rejoice in my good fortune, for that they were bestowed upon me after the great battle that was the Tour of Langkawi. Strong are they, for they survived that crash-ridden race and came to pass through customs to me. My delight is in their lightness, because they weigheth only 1700 grams, but still hath a PowerTap hub.
Ummm! yummy wheels. speaking of which, I’m sending my Rovals back to Specialized AGAIN, due to stress fractures at the spoke holes on the rim. Second time in a year for the year and the first time for the front. I’m not impressed and I’m thinking about dropping some cash on a pair of the aluminum Reynolds wheels. I’m sure glad my wheels didn’t crumple coming down Mt. Lemmon or that would have truly been ugly.
DD – I too am glad your wheels did not taco while descending Mt. Lemmon (pie). Look for an interview on the next podcast with Gabe of echappeonline.com. He may have a suggestion for you.
It’s obvious that the aluminum in the Roval wheels is not compatible with their “special” internal nipple. Roval advertises that their nipple lock is wider than others, thus distributing the tension more evenly along the rim. However, the edge of the internal nipple is exactly where the stress fractures are showing up on the outside of the rim. I had 4 fractures on the front and 3 on the rear. Some were as long as a centimeter. I spoke to Kale today and he said Specialized was sending out some new wheels. Hopefully I will get them sometime next week.
What’s the PowerTap wheel over an SRM?
Two main reasons. The team has a product sponsorship deal with Saris and the Power Agent software is Mac compatible. Otherwise, it is a bit of a drawback to be reliant on a wheel for data as opposed to a crank, which is always on your bike, but I do think the the PT hub is more accurate and does not have to re-calibrated as often as the SRM. In a retail setting the PowerTap is a lot cheaper than the SRM. As for durability, I do not know. Time will tell I guess.
john.
bling
thewrob.