Week and a half ago in a moment of insanity I agreed to go with my niece
Lindsay to the Maxxis XC race at Castlemaine that was a part of the Vic XC
series. I took the bell, rear guard, lights, and slicks off of the mountain
bike, whacked on a set of knobbies and off we went.
Lindsay convinced me to do a practice lap of the 6.4km course and within
about 1 km or so I was having second thoughts......the course was pretty
technical, had some real steep hills, and I was going to struggle.
Unfortunately I had already paid for the race and day licence so it was too
late to turn back. I entered in "Mens Sport A" that involved 3 laps.....I
later found out that Sport B only did 2 laps and I was spewing that I didn't
enter that one.
Anyways.....started out pretty slow (33 min first lap), got a bit quicker
(30 min second lap) and was going OK on my last lap and starting to reel a
few people in when I heard a funny noise coming from the rear wheel. Had a
look and it had cracked at the seam......I had managed to break my
"indestructible" Sun Rhyno Lite.
I have had the rims for 15 months or so and they have been used exclusively
for commuting - this was the first time I had ever raced them or even taken
them on anything wilder than the Yarra Trail. I thought that I would email
Sun Ringle to see what the deal is and I sent a couple of photos of the
break. The guy who got back to me said he had never seen anything like it
and agreed to replace it under warranty........woot!!!
I am actually going to see if he will let me put the replacement rim $$
value towards a set of Rhyno Lite XLs that are apparantly even more bomb
proof than the Rhyno Lites. I am also using this as an excuse to upgrade to
disc brakes and given the current state of the Aussie dollar, I can get in a
set of 2005 Shimano LX disc brakes, levers, hubs, and hydraulic cable for
about $350 including postage.
To top things off.....I discovered last night that there is a crack in my
road bike rim as well.......could be just the excuse I am looking for to get
a new road bike.
Ride On,
Gags