Today’s ride was one of those short easy rides that turned into an all-day time-waster. I was less than 5 miles from home when I heard a ping! from my rear wheel—and it turned out to be a broken spoke. Unfortunately, when you break a spoke on a 20-spoke rear wheel, the rim assumes a shape that is most non-conducive to continued riding; the wheel went so out of true that the tire rubbed on the chain stays.

I was riding with a friend, luckily, and he rode home and came back in his car to pick me up. But then I faced another problem: this was the second broken spoke on this wheelset, and they both happened at the same place, where the spoke bends to enter the rim. Because of the way the spoke lays across the rim before entering the spoke hole, dirt and moisture can accumulate in there, causing corrosion and resulting in a very weak point. When the spoke broke today, I wasn’t doing anything hard or stressing the wheel at all; just standing up to take off from a stop.

I realized I didn’t trust these wheels any more (the Shimano RH540), and I needed some right away—so I bought a pair of these, after doing some research and discovering that they had gotten great reviews, comparing them to the entry level Ksyrium wheels.

The price was right, and they aren’t French.