Wheels

The bloke who did our kitchen was impressed by my wheels. The 45mm deep aluminium aero rims, he said, would definitely make me go faster. And he probably knows what he's talking about, he rode for Rhodesia at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and his daughter was the Australian elite female road cyclist for 2011. (Hot tip for this year's London Olympics... go Shara!)

He was impressed and a bit surprised to see those wheels on a $500 bike. It's something to do with the weird economics surrounding the rise of China, I'm sure.

 This full carbon road bike could cost you under $700 or over $6000 online, depending on where you buy it! Is it really the same bike?

The wheels that came with my jelly bean bike are more about show than go though, I'm sure. The rims come in a choice of 8 different colours. The hubs only come in one... gold! They're showy but also strong, no doubt. Except I broke one!

Slowly riding out from work, I was watching the pedestrians and not where my wheels were going. Perhaps in my subconscious I was still on a fat tyred mountain bike and had forgotten the 700x25 rubber that was really underneath me. I dropped the front wheel into a storm water grate, came to a sudden stop and fell a bit to the left. There was a loud crack and I was left looking for another way to get home.

Wheels do take a beating. First I had pinch flats which I fixed with some hefty cloth rim tape.

Then I tore a hole in a tyre riding over an expansion joint on the Victoria  Bridge.

So I got these with kevlar in them.

 And they're red.

But there was no way to repair the buckled aero rim.

So new rim? New wheel? Could I get something that matched for less than the cost of a whole new bike?

On the jellybean bikes web site you can easily order a custom coloured complete bike delivered anywhere in Australia. But it's not really set up to order replacement parts. It took a couple of emails, a phone call and a couple of weeks to organise, but they could sell me a new front wheel complete with tyre and tube for $75 + postage. When it arrived it came with an extra tube and tyre! But the hub was silver not gold!?

I'm not complaining. I was back on the road with my deep rims and my flash hubs for less than I paid for my White Industries freewheel.... So here are a couple of pictures of it.

While I was waiting for my new wheel, I looked around at what alternatives where available and was very tempted by these...

My wife tells me they would clash with the flouro green frame though. Maybe I need a whole new bike?