Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning...

I destroy wheels, particularly rear wheels.

I’m not sure why, because I’m not heavy and I don’t put out that much torque. But the expected life span of a drive-side spoke on my bike is only marginally greater than 37 minutes.

When I bought my first road bike, I went through two or three (Shimano) Ultegra wheels before I switched to (Mavic) Ksyriums. I certainly got more service out of the Ksyriums, but I still went through three more rear wheels on my old bike.

Fortunately, I had purchased Mavic’s optional two-year, no-questions-asked replacement policy, which has the unfortunate moniker of the “MP3” program.

Whatever it’s called, the first time I destroyed a Mavic wheel, I got a free replacement. Unfortunately, the second time I trashed a Ksyrium, the warranty had just expired. Still, with good wheels and a great warranty, they earned my business.

So when I bought my new bike last year, I immediately traded in its el cheapo wheels for Mavic Ksyriums. Then a few months later I was taken out by a car in South Boston and was forced to replace the rear wheel with a new one.

The only negative of the MP3 program is that each time I swapped wheels meant six to eight weeks off the bike, while it was mailed to France and a replacement was shipped back. So after my accident the new bike sat idle at the bike shop from August to October, when the new wheel was installed.

Fast forward to this year… In mid-January I was out in Weston, enjoying a (comparatively) warm day and pedaling lightly along a slight descent when there was a sudden WHANG!WHANG!WHANG! from my rear wheel. Upon stopping, it was obvious that one of the spokes had snapped in two right at the spoke nipple.

Now that’s ridiculous. I wasn’t doing anything crazy, and this was the brand new wheel they’d supplied, with less than 500 miles on it! And now here I was: stranded in Weston, fifteen miles from home in the middle of a weekday afternoon.

Fortunately, the nearest Commuter Rail station (Kendal Green) was only a mile away. Despite a rear wheel that was wobbly and out of true, I managed to ride gingerly to the station, only to discover that there’s no inbound platform.

I was only four more miles from Waltham, and I knew about a bike shop there: Frank’s. I was able to hobble in and talk to the mechanic. But because it’s really not much of a shop, there was absolutely nothing he could for me.

At that point, my choices were to wait for a commuter train in Waltham or take my chances trying to ride ten more miles back home to Boston. With no idea when the train would come, and having already ridden five miles, I decided to push my luck.

That luck held for another five miles, when the stress on the already-warped wheel caused a second spoke to snap, throwing the wheel completely out of true. Already committed, I could only keep riding, but the juddering bike caused me to expect the wheel to fail completely at any second.

About a mile from home, I turned off at Boston University and headed straight to the bike shop. I left the beast with them, hoping that Mavic would honor another claim against their warranty.

After the usual long wait, today I got my bike back from the shop. I guess I should consider myself fortunate that this lengthy hiatus happened during the off-season, while we endured some of the worst weather of the year, rather than at a training peak.

Despite the delay, I am delighted with Mavic’s replacement program—it’s saved me several thousand dollars—and I’ve been running Ksyriums for years. But having a wheel with only 500 miles on it fail mid-ride makes me really uncomfortable and concerned, and I’m very unhappy that my new bike has spent 25 percent of the past year languishing in drydock.

And now spring is only a month away, so I’ll be very anxious to see how long this new wheel lasts…