Need Help ASAP! WHEEL ISSUE 7 days before IMLou!
I was testing my full race setup (Tubular Zipp 404's with disc cover) on my last 2.5 hr ride yesterday. 7 days until IMLou (my first Ironman)! 5 miles from home I was coming down a steep hill and it was damp from previous day's rain (stupid, I know). Anyways, i went over a huge pothole that was super loud when I hit it.
Last night when I was re-cleaning my bike and oiling my chain, etc, I noticed that when I spun my wheel, my brake bad rubbed once per rotation of my wheel. Upon further inspection I noticed a small bulge near the brake track area. I took it into my LBS today. The head mechanic there just did my tune-up last week and he is awesome (and a sick Time-Trialer, cyclocross racer and Mt. bike racer). He inspected it and pointed out that the bulge is only on one side (drive-side). He said if it was really bad it would have damaged both sides. Also, the surface is not delaminated so again, not that terribly bad. He said he's seen guys run on MUCH worse for yrs without issues. I asked him if "he" would race on this wheel... He said, "yes, I'd have no problem racing on that, and you could train on it with likely no problems. I'd do TT's on it or any other race, however, if I trained for a specific race for a whole yr, like Leadville or something, then I would not use that wheel..." He did not tell me to use it, or not. When I asked if there was a higher chance I could flat or have some sort of catastrophic failure, he said "unlikely, but I don't want to tell you to use it because I'd feel terrible if you did flat out there and you'll think this might have been the reason".
He offered to give me their demo set of Zipps for free for the week to race on. I declined, because it didn't have a Powertap. He then lent me his wheelbuilder disc cover as a backup plan (it's made for a Mavic Open Pro and I'm yet to see if it will fit my Bontrager PT training wheel).
Here's what I need help with... WHAT THE HECK SHOULD I DO... I have a super heavy Bontrager Classics Powertap training wheel. I could also try to rent a powertap wheel or disc, but I think I would need to do that by tomorrow if it's not already too late...
This is not a money issue, it's a logistics and execution issue. I did my final FTP test and RR on my Zipps. I'm a bit worried that the "calibration" might not be exactly the same on a rented wheel or even on my training wheel. This 0-5% error in calibration (either direction) could cause me to cook myself, or massively underperform during my race (or be spot on, who knows)...
Here are my options as I see them:
1) Just use my this tubular Zipp 404 wheel and know that there is a 98% chance that it will be fine (2% chance I ruin the race I have trained a whole yr for)
2) Use my training wheel (maybe try to get a disc cover for it on very short notice if the one he gave me doesn't work) but then I would be mixing a heavy clincher and a tubular for a couple more added things to carry with me during the race in spare tubes and tire levers). I'll also need to get a new tire to race on, my yr old Continental Gatorskin won't cut it...
3) Rent a Powertap wheel and have it shipped to the race site (I'm leaving on wednesday). If I go this route, should I get another 404 or just go with the full disc since I'd be renting it anyways? I think only the flat Zipp 900 disc will fit my P3.
It would be much easier for me to give someone else advice on this topic than actually have to face this decision on my own. PLEASE HELP...
Comments
Maybe contact Rich? You could overnight it to Wheelbuilder and have him look at it. Worst case, if he says it is bad, he can rent/sell you a wheel. He can calibrate a rental PT to match your PT exactly.
Ebay?
And what did you boys do this weekend? You're supposed to be taking it easy!
Your mechanic sounds like he has his game together and was smart to not totally commit on the wheel. But his comments as you described them say the likely hood of a catastrophic failure is approaching zero – you may have a higher probability of a flat.
You commented this is your first IM. What if you raced the current wheel and had a flat, this is a potential scenario with a perfect wheel, you change out the tire 2-3 min later you are on the road to a finish. In this scenario, is the time lost to change the flat the a huge issue or just the mental impact of a higher potential of the flat?
If you go with the rental approach – go for the full disk. I look forward to meeting you at IMLOU.
Good luck bud!
Rip it up on Sunday....
....If money is no object...
You could overnight the wheel to Wheelbuilder, for 10am delivery on Tues. WB could build you a new wheel using your hub and overnight it back to you. You'd get it on Wed, or could do 2nd day and have it on Thursday.
I suggest you call Wheelbuilder, ask for Joe, tell him you're with EN.
@Matt/Stephen-- I'm not stressed. I'm handling this like a robot and I'll race like a Ninja, I just want to figure out the best path forward.
@Brandon-- Awesome of you to offer this! I will save this as plan C if I don't have anything figured out by tomorrow, I may take you up on that on Tuesday. I have a 2008 Cervelo P3, I think the BB is a Dura-Ace 7800 (or7900) which I think is ISO/English 1.37" (not bb30)
@JT-- That is probably my absolute fall back plan (take my training wheel just in case but rent a disk or 404 on site if I have to, but I'd rather have it reserved in advance)
@Tucker/Rich/Jonathan-- Thanks! I hadn't even thought of this before you guys suggested it. It's not that money is no object... I just didn't want that to be the limiting factor. I have boxed my wheel up. I'll take it to work in the morning and call Joe (or Rich Sawiris) at wheelbuilder as soon as they open. I plan to overnight it to them and figure out what is the best way to move forward. Either I'll rent a similarly calibrated wheel or have them rebuild mine into a new wheel and have them send it directly to Louisville for Friday at the latest (unless of course they say my wheel is fine in which case I'll have them mail it back to me at Louisville).
I can't thank you guys enough for your awesome suggestions and feedback!
@Stephen- I should have thought to do this, but didn't even think about it. Too late now given that i'm on a train to work and have my Zipp with me all boxed up.
I just keep thinking how stupid I am. And Tucker, it was the same hill that Evan wrecked on... I was about 20 yds ahead of him... We added it on to the end of our planned out ride just before we went home. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Gonna be a very costly extra 3 miles, $ wise for me, and almost ended Evan's season 1 week before our main event at IMLou! We'll both be confidently on that starting line, but learned a Very valuable lesson.
I have free access to the most $$$$$ trick PT/race wheel I want to ride. But I'm racing on my Hed Belgium + wheelcover because I absolutely want my watts on race day to be my watts in training, to the watt. Period. Instead I'll have Rich clean and grease the bearings in each wheel, will race with a new chain, new tires, hide some cables and in general address all the drive train, aero stuff I can think of.
My main problem (per Coach Rich's last comment) was that I really wanted to use my same Powertap wheel (or at least hub as a next best thing). Rich at Wheelbuilder said it would probably be fine. But since I didn't want to ruin my race if something happened I decided to do the next best thing to using my wheel. I'm overnighting my wheel to Rich at Wheelbuilder. He's gonna use Zipp's crash replacement policy to build me a new wheel around my Powertap SL+ hub! /because of the EN discount and the Zipp Crash replacement policy I decided to say what the heck, may as well go ahead and upgrade my wheelset in the process... so instead of just replacing my tubular Zipp, I'm upgrading it to Firecrest Clincher whole wheelset. It was expensive, but a heck of a lot cheaper that I thought it would be. He's gonna build and ship the front today and build and ship the rear tomorrow after he gets my hub. Both should arrive at my hotel in Louisville before I get there on Thursday.
@Tucker-- It was really weird not using eBay for a major purchase... With service as good as they gave me at Wheelbuilder, I might have to try it again when my wife gets jealous and talks me into buying her a set as well...