Spoke Problems on the Highway to Hell
by Ken Bonner

A day after the Vancouver Island "Highway to Hell" 400, Ken sent me a message on a totally different matter, but added a brief p.s. about a little equipment glitch he had on the ride. I thought there might be some sort of lesson in here somewhere. Ken wasn't so sure but agreed to let me show this to you anyway. In either case it can also double as a VI400a ride report. [Eric F.]

p.s. I broke my personal best on the Highway to Hell 400 last Saturday --- my previous personal best was about 80k on a Mavic Ksyrium rear wheel with a broken-drive side spoke. On Saturday, I broke a drive-side spoke at about the 90k mark. My choice was to straighten the wheel the best I could and carry on with fingers crossed, or dnf. I chose to carry on, riding very gently and avoiding all potholes and rough pavement. My new personal best is now 170k on a broken drive-side spoke!! On my return trip through Parksville I debated carrying on to the end with the broken spoke, but remembered the rough road through Shawnigan. So, I went into the Parksville bike shop --- although they were busy, they kindly got me on my way in about an hour --- fortunately, I carry extra Ksyrium spokes, because they didn’t have any!

Great ride – a nice tail-wind up to Union Bay, and a lot of side wind on the way back. Heavy rain for the last 15k, but there was a silver lining – the strong wind pushing the storm, also pushed me quickly into the finish. I thought of asking Tim Horton’s for a free tim-bit, but I didn’t want to see any of the employees get fired!

Cheers … Ken

May 11, 2008