Ok- so I do love my titanium Colnago bike. It’s pretty choice, all things considered. But it is a 20 year old bike or so. And Italian. Which presents some challenges.
I screwed up some repair and thankfully the fancy boutique bike shop was able to fix it. And everything looked good. So I took him out on a ride this weekend…
… and broke another spoke.
As I said previously, I’ve never had a spoke break on any bike before. Ever. Now my Nago front wheel has shelled two spokes. This is a nice wheel set too. Campagnolo Nucleon wheels with stainless steel aero blade spokes.
Unfortunately I was 2/3 of the way to Minnehaha falls where I was having a socially distanced quartet rehearsal. Which means I had to bend this spoke out of the way and limp my bike along to the falls. Not ideal. I got a ride home which helped to prevent further damage.
Once home I started Looking at my options. I don’t need to ride the Nago, so it can sit until the wheel is repaired. And I should be getting the Cinelli back from the shop on Tuesday. So I started looking on the internet for repair parts.
The problem? These wheels are not made anymore. Which means the spokes for the wheel are hard to find. As in, I couldn’t find any spoke replacement kits anywhere. Not even from the manufacturer. Ugh!!
Ebay to the rescue! Thankfully (and serendipitously) I found a guy selling a “parts only” Nucleon Wheelset with some extra spokes. It was $150, So I bought it without a second thought. (To fully replace the wheels on the Nago with a comparable set would cost $1200 or more 😳!)
Bike season is winding down, so I’ll have tons of time to get things fixed up for spring. but in the meantime, I’m riding as much as I can in the shortening days.
Mangina Monologues 