New Wheels

My rear wheel gave up the ghost the other day. It had stress cracks at numerous drive-side spoke holes, and was starting to get squirrelly on me. Fortunately, the LBS had a sale on some Mavic Ksyrium Equipes for 30% off.

I'd gotten in a couple of short rides with them, but today, I got to try them out for the first time on a longer ride. Started at the 41st St. trailhead of the River Park East trail, crossed the 21st St. Bridge, took 21st St./Avery Dr. to SH-51, and part way up the first of 2 good-sized hills east of Lake Keystone. A map of the route can be seen here.

It was a hot, humid, breezy, day. The winds were mostly cross winds, and the temps were in the mid-90s. I was averaging 18 mph at the turn onto SH-51. The portion of SH-51 that I rode is flat, and I was able to raise the average speed to 18.5 mph by the turn around point. I managed to raise my average a little more, to 18.7 mph by the time I turned onto Avery Drive.

Avery Drive is rolling, trending slightly uphill when heading east, and my average speed dropped to 18.5 mph by the time I hit 21st St. Back on flat ground, I let her rip, and pulled my average back up to 18.8 mph by the finish.

Total distance was 28.9 mi. Average speed, 18.8 mph. Max speed, 32.4 mph. Average heart rate was 150 (70% of max). Max heart rate was 171 (90% of max). Total time was 1:32:50, moving time was 1:32:10. Split times were 34:49 at the SH-51 junction going out, 1:02:41 at the junction coming back, and 1:32:50 at the finish.

Verdict: I think I'm going to like these wheels. I can't find anything in my records of any ride of this length and difficulty with equal average speed. The old wheels served me well, and I wasn't wild about shelling out the money for a new wheelset, but there just may be something to that old saw about better wheels being faster.