silentbutdeadly
has some good things to say
At least an option that doesn't involve scrap metal...
Some years ago I succumbed to a combination of ignorance, illusions of bling and CRC's stock dumping policy to acquire a late 1st generation CB Cobalt 29er wheelset for the XC bike.
Turned out to be not a shit wheelset for my needs. The only trouble is/was the soft as butter freehub shell (I have a spare). Eventually, the inevitable happened and I snapped a spoke on the drive side of the rear wheel.
Let's face it. CB make disposable bling. Generally it's a functional item that they've altered to suit a marketing aesthetic. Rarely do they make it better but the result can look spectacular. And you can feel good about your purchasing decision...
But CB have a dark side. They fiddle with stuff. Mostly because good bling isn't always good engineering. So nothing stays the same.
In my case, spokes for 5 year old wheels are unobtainable unless you resort to European shipping fees. The nipples and their special washers...long gone.
In the years since this purchase I've learnt much more about wheels. I've used a custom wheel builder for a while and started playing with wheel building myself. The Cobalts were beyond me...I could true them but that was about it.
So I sent them to the professional. The upshot is that he's rebuilt the wheel. The spokes used are custom shortened (by the local distributor) DT Swiss plain gauge spokes. All drive side spokes have been swapped out. The bill amounts to just over $100 plus shipping...so not expensive. About $30 of that was for the 12 spokes.
Said professional was circumspect about the results given the used nature of the rim but he's happy enough with the true and tension to suggest there's still a few years in them.
The upshot is that you might have been fooled once but there's no need to consign your no longer new specialty weird bling wheels to the scrap if you ding a spoke and you can't get parts.
As long as you haven't done a Shredden on them then you can possibly have a future that might wipe some buyers remorse out of mind...OK maybe just further down the list...
Some years ago I succumbed to a combination of ignorance, illusions of bling and CRC's stock dumping policy to acquire a late 1st generation CB Cobalt 29er wheelset for the XC bike.
Turned out to be not a shit wheelset for my needs. The only trouble is/was the soft as butter freehub shell (I have a spare). Eventually, the inevitable happened and I snapped a spoke on the drive side of the rear wheel.
Let's face it. CB make disposable bling. Generally it's a functional item that they've altered to suit a marketing aesthetic. Rarely do they make it better but the result can look spectacular. And you can feel good about your purchasing decision...
But CB have a dark side. They fiddle with stuff. Mostly because good bling isn't always good engineering. So nothing stays the same.
In my case, spokes for 5 year old wheels are unobtainable unless you resort to European shipping fees. The nipples and their special washers...long gone.
In the years since this purchase I've learnt much more about wheels. I've used a custom wheel builder for a while and started playing with wheel building myself. The Cobalts were beyond me...I could true them but that was about it.
So I sent them to the professional. The upshot is that he's rebuilt the wheel. The spokes used are custom shortened (by the local distributor) DT Swiss plain gauge spokes. All drive side spokes have been swapped out. The bill amounts to just over $100 plus shipping...so not expensive. About $30 of that was for the 12 spokes.
Said professional was circumspect about the results given the used nature of the rim but he's happy enough with the true and tension to suggest there's still a few years in them.
The upshot is that you might have been fooled once but there's no need to consign your no longer new specialty weird bling wheels to the scrap if you ding a spoke and you can't get parts.
As long as you haven't done a Shredden on them then you can possibly have a future that might wipe some buyers remorse out of mind...OK maybe just further down the list...