I think it was the 2005 Tour de Langkawi, but when a Bridgestone Anchor rider crashed on a bridge and the Anchor bike fell into the river, a Discovery Channel rider apparently joked, "Hey, look at that—there's an anchor sinking in the water."
Anyway, wheels again today (and so on).
A customer left me the front wheel of a Shamal Mille.
While riding deep in the Yoshino mountains, the front wheel got wedged into a gap in a grating cover, and when it twisted and he crashed, the leverage principle bent the front rim. That's what happened.
He couldn't ride under his own power, and the cell signal was out of range, so he walked for a while. When he finally got a signal, he called the nearest inn, got a ride, and had them take him to the station so he could get home with his bike packed away. Just to be clear though—the customer wasn't actually staying at that inn.
It's bent in two places.
↑Here and
↑Here
Grating covers can be flipped over or have gaps, and riding over them can cause flats or rim damage. Depending on the season, weeds grow from the bottom of the grooves or fallen leaves cover everything, making the condition hard to see. When you're bombing downhill, sometimes you can't swerve in time to avoid them.
↑It's really bent out.
I replaced the rim.
Surprisingly, all the spokes were salvageable.
When I set it on the floor
There's that much gap.
Now, I feel bad for the customer, but this was such a missed opportunity!
The word "fulcrum"—it's not a made-up word or Italian. It's English. It's the English term for the "pivot point" of a lever, and it's barely used in any other context, so it's an unfamiliar word. If this wheel had been a Fulcrum Racing Zero Night, the story would've been, "The fulcrum rim bent at the fulcrum," but sadly it was actually a Campagnolo.
Earlier in this blog somewhere, I wrote (apparently) that "the Shamal Ultra and Racing Zero rims are the same except for spoke hole phasing." A wholesaler who's the most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in Japan corrected me, and I said I'd touch on it if the opportunity came up. So I'll mention it now.
The machining between rim holes on Fulcrum is angular,
while Campagnolo is rounded.
(The reason Fulcrum's rim height is higher is because this is a rear rim.)
For front rims, the dimensions are the same, so while no one would bother doing it, rim swaps would theoretically be possible. Or actually, sorry—since they're completely different manufacturers, that's not allowed.
Anyway, wheels again today (and so on).
A customer left me the front wheel of a Shamal Mille.
While riding deep in the Yoshino mountains, the front wheel got wedged into a gap in a grating cover, and when it twisted and he crashed, the leverage principle bent the front rim. That's what happened.
He couldn't ride under his own power, and the cell signal was out of range, so he walked for a while. When he finally got a signal, he called the nearest inn, got a ride, and had them take him to the station so he could get home with his bike packed away. Just to be clear though—the customer wasn't actually staying at that inn.
It's bent in two places.
↑Here and
↑Here
Grating covers can be flipped over or have gaps, and riding over them can cause flats or rim damage. Depending on the season, weeds grow from the bottom of the grooves or fallen leaves cover everything, making the condition hard to see. When you're bombing downhill, sometimes you can't swerve in time to avoid them.
↑It's really bent out.
I replaced the rim.
Surprisingly, all the spokes were salvageable.
When I set it on the floor
There's that much gap.
Now, I feel bad for the customer, but this was such a missed opportunity!
The word "fulcrum"—it's not a made-up word or Italian. It's English. It's the English term for the "pivot point" of a lever, and it's barely used in any other context, so it's an unfamiliar word. If this wheel had been a Fulcrum Racing Zero Night, the story would've been, "The fulcrum rim bent at the fulcrum," but sadly it was actually a Campagnolo.
Earlier in this blog somewhere, I wrote (apparently) that "the Shamal Ultra and Racing Zero rims are the same except for spoke hole phasing." A wholesaler who's the most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in Japan corrected me, and I said I'd touch on it if the opportunity came up. So I'll mention it now.
The machining between rim holes on Fulcrum is angular,
while Campagnolo is rounded.
(The reason Fulcrum's rim height is higher is because this is a rear rim.)
For front rims, the dimensions are the same, so while no one would bother doing it, rim swaps would theoretically be possible. Or actually, sorry—since they're completely different manufacturers, that's not allowed.