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How can I not tell you about this?  I have some new wheels rolling their way down the street to me.  And man oh man, I cannot w8 for them to get here!

This is what happened: I have been flatting lately.  Not just a flat every once in a while either.  It was one flat on the way out, and one flat on the way back.  One ride saw three flats, one right after the other.  Ugh.

Imagine yourself pedaling down the road, happy as a clam (are clams actually happy?  I’m going to need to do some research.  Click here to view its origin. Interesting.), heart rate booming along around 140 bpm, and you realize your tire is going soft.  Bother!  It needs to be fixed.  So you dismount, break out the tools and a new tube, and go about the business of changing the tube out.  Inflate the tire, clean your mess, and you are back to business.  As you hop on you are secretly congratulating yourself on having mechanical skills sharp enough to get this done.  And you quickly forget about the sweat that burned your eyes as it streamed down your forehead, and you don’t remember how quickly your jersey fills with sweat as you do your repairs this Summer day….and off you fly, only to do it again about ten minutes up the road.  BUMMER!

So I repaired something like 12 flats in 6 rides.  And that got me to thinking about a flawed mechanical technique during the tire mount.  Am I pinching the tube?  Or not filling the tire enough resulting in a pinch flat.  Or I got ahold of some bad rubber.  I don’t know.  But I can tell you it was getting frustrating, and kind of got in my head too.  A fast, sweeping turn that ends up on the rim can be bad for the wheel, the bike, and the rider….and I kept looking down to see if the tire was inflated every time I went around a curve.  Talk about distractions!

So I went to the Local Bike Shop (LBS) to talk with a mechanic.  Dude and I went over my technique (and yes, I was checking the inside of the tire for something protruding each time) and looked at BOTH of the tubes I had changed on that ride, and there wasn’t really anything common about the rupture.  It was in a different area of the tube and kind of gave a clue that the wheel side of the tube was at fault.  And do you know what the mechanic asked me?  “How many miles do you have on these wheels?”

Huh?  That led to a discussion about wheel “flex” and how age can cause wheels to flat more often than before.  And I left shaking my head, and thinking he was trying to make commission on a new set of $1200 wheels.

Until I checked with the all-knowing “internet”.  You know what I found out?  Dude wasn’t fibbing!  Some manufactures say you should expect wheels to last 10,000 miles.  WUT?  I did some thinking about my wheels and realized they had more than 25,000 miles on them.  25,000 miles!  Wow.

So this morning at 7:10 I ordered some new wheels.  They are from a company named Neuvation Cycling and come highly recommended from a couple of riding buddies.  At 2:29 this afternoon I received an email telling me the wheels had been shipped via UPS and would show up TOMORROW!  Today is Monday and I’ll have my new R28 Aero wheels on Tuesday.  Fantastic!

You want to know the best news about this transaction? The total cost is $369 for the set.  Shipping, handling, and tax included.  Not $1200.  Three hundred and sixty nine bucks.  Super nice!

Naturally, I’ll keep you up to date on their function.  In this you-get-what-you-pay-for world we live in, I could be sorely disappointed or completely satisfied with the purchase.  Stay tuned.

Wow!