$2.22

There's a reason I'm banned from riding with a power meter - I produce so many watts that it intimidates my fellow riders. Why just this morning I broke another spoke while sprinting out of the saddle. I didn't realize my wheel fell out of true and was rubbing against my brake pads until I got home - again, because I am such a powerful rider I thought the added resistance was just the poor road surface.


Knowing that I'm scheduled to ride again tomorrow, I set about to swap out my wheels. Luckily, I save a pair of carbon fiber wheels just for these emergencies. They're pretty fancy - Bontrager OCLV carbon fiber rims with DT Swiss 240s hubs. However, they're not as fancy as the wheels they're replacing - the ones with Tune hubs, Kinlin rims, and titanium bladed spokes (of which one is now broken). Switching the cassette over was pretty easy, but after I mounted the wheel to the frame I noticed the inner cog was rubbing against the spokes. This is usually a bad thing. It's a good thing if you want an excuse not to ride. It's a bad thing if you actually want to ride.

Wanting to ride, I went to Bicycle Sport Shop to pick up a 1mm spacer to relieve that contact. Cost for the spacer: $1.07. I went ahead and brought along the rear wheel to see if they had a replacement spoke. They didn't. However, they suggested Nelo's Pro Cycles on Mesa. A quick stop there did produce an adequate spoke. Granted, it's only stainless steel and not titanium nor bladed, but it'll work for now. Besides - it was only $1.15. Total for my shopping trip today... $2.22. Not bad - I think I spent more on gas than on the parts.


A final word of caution: Given the difference in thermal expansion rates and elastic deformation ranges between the new stainless spoke and the original ti spokes, my wheel may become crazy unstable if I hammer on it. Looks like I'll have to throttle back on the power for now. Lucky for the other riders out there.