New Wheels

Ever since I read about the HED Bastogne wheels last year in Cyclingnews, I was intrigued by the idea of a wider rim width, and I finally had a chance to put a set to the test.

I was determined to get a set of the totally cool, totally new Velocity A23 rims, and I ordered up a pair last week. As per usual though, it was to be a wheelset with my standard klugey sensibilities. I inherited a broken Bontrager Race Lite tubular wheelset, with a damaged rim and some tweaked spokes, but otherwise A-OK. These are paired spoke wheels, however, so I knew that building the wheel to a standard-drilled rim would be odd, though not necessarily unstable.

I built up the set last week, the front being no problem whatsoever, as it was a simple radial lace with a standard 24 hole setup. The rear was a bit tricky, but worked out surprisingly easily. I was able to build up the wheel using some of the existing bladed spokes (DT Aerolites no less) by switching the non-drive spokes of the deeper Bontrager wheel to the drive side and then picking some new non drive spokes on the left. Easy enough. Then I just tensioned and trued as normal, and with some minor pain was able to make a straight enough wheel.

I took them out for a ride last night with about 85-90 psi in the tires, and they were good, really good. Smooth, just as you'd expect, and they accelerated well with some pretty amazing traction up the steep little kickers that I found on a golf course trail. It was good stuff, and I'm looking forward to putting them on the new bike, once my damn cranks arrive that is!