Got in a short, fun ride today with my buddy Gary and some guy named Chris at the Avalon area of Patapsco State Park (more about which soon). Afterwards, while gently throwing down a Harpoon Leviathan Imperial IPA—surprisingly good and sporting one of the best labels out there—in the parking lot of CCBC, I happened to look down and notice something odd about G-spot's front wheel: I could very clearly see the elbows of two adjacent and opposing spokes which, while still crossed, were free of their erstwhile snug little homes on the flange and just sort of floating in space.
Hmm. Not good.Yeah, flange failure. A relatively rare (I have to believe) occurrence with three-cross lacing on a hub that hasn't seen that many miles. And at the same time, a true testament to the strength and reliability of such a build (Gary rode on it over technical terrain, rucksack on his back hanging heavy with photog paraphernalia, to finish the ride, and never noticed the damage), especially in light of the continuing trend toward lower spoke-counts and fewer (or no) crossings, all in the name of progress and profit.
Back to King it goes for warranty replacement. Like Gary needs another excuse not to ride...
5 comments:
Hope you come back to Patapsco again soon when I'm around.
I don't know man, that happened to my King hub too. They were super cool about it, replaced it under warranty and upgraded everything in the hub. Still sucks though, it's the only hub I've pulled the spokes from...
Damn! I couldn't really ever imagine having a wheel build that I felt comfortable running 2 cross on. Heck I'll probably stay on 36's on any wheel sets going forward, they take the abuse much better.
Daaaaaaamn! What would cause that? Spokes wound too tight maybe?
CJ, my unscientific guess is a defect in the hub. I have to believe that tension in a 3x lacing pattern sufficient to pull apart the flange on a quality hub would likely cause rim failure at the spoke bed long before the hub would give in...that, or failure at the spoke/nipple interface or at the spoke elbow.
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