Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Wheels and More Wheels!

Wheels are one of my favorite things about bicycles. The whole structure just seems magical and almost unbeliveable to me. I mean, all my weight, and all those forces transmitted and held up by nothing more than metal wires? Consider the percentage of the weight of wheels in terms of the overall weight of a bicycle and it's rider. Mind boggling, I say!

Anyway, that partly explains my facination with the wheels of a bicycle. It also explains why I get excited about getting new hoops for my 29"ers. I have still got to get some real riding done on the Velocity wheelset I just got in. It's been too wintry and I've been ill, ( all better now, thank you very much!) to get much riding in on them. I also have the Surly "Jim Brown" single speed hoops on the Velocity Deep V rims that haven't ever had a tire mounted on them yet! Now there are two more wheel sets on the horizon! A set of wheels that are pretty bling-o-riffic and another set of wheels that promises a change in the way we ride our 29"ers.

Looks like I'll have plenty of wheel stock around for testing purposes this spring. It'll be pretty fun and I look forwards to putting all this crazy technology through the wringer. As amazing as a standard wheel is, these new wheels take wheel technology to new levels and challenge the belief that 29"er wheels are too heavy, are not strong enough, and don't accelerate well.

Added to all of this is a new tire coming out this spring that from an eye witness account will be one of the best hard pack, Mid-West oriented tires available. I can't wait to try it out!

It's going to be a fun spring! I hope the warm weather hurries up and clears out this snow so I can ride some trail soon!

The wheels on the bike go 'round and 'round,
'Round and 'round,
'Round and 'round........

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