Peruvian Venice

photo By Erasmo Wong

"Mining Town. This river is one of the most polluted rivers in Peru. Once upon a time, it was the main source of clean water in La Oroya. Now people do not care about it anymore and throw their trash in it all the time. When I took the picture you could see people's hands in some of the windows ready to litter. La Oroya, Peru"

BSNYC/RTMS

It seems his influence is spreading

The Wheels

The Wheels: If you are going to ride these wheels you are going to get all kinds of questions. "So what's the deal with that third flange?" or "what am I looking at?" depending what type of person you are this can be a good or a bad thing. On one had you get an opportunity to come up with ridiculous and elaborate responses to vague questions. Which can be fun because if you want you can try to say something different every time. Or maybe perhaps see how far you go can before some one calls bullshit on you. Example;

"well the third flange acutely generates vertical thrust, which means in low gravity environments, such as the moon, these wheels could actually generate short bouts of flight. So I think the advantages for climbing are pretty obvious"

On the other hand this can be a bad thing because, well when people try to talk to you and ask you questions they expect a response. And well lets face it sometimes that annoying.

The Ride: truthfully though these wheels ride very nicely. One good thing is they are comfortable, but retain good crisp sharp handling with very little flex through turns. They also look good and complement my bike nicely. They are very aero and feature a deep 30mm rim with 18 radially laced spokes up front and 24 spokes in the rear. Both the drive side and non-drive side spokes are radially laced, with the center spokes one-cross. This makes the center spokes the drive spokes. The nipples are hidden in the rim for aerodynamics, also which is nice. They have also been featured in the BSNYC Retarded Wheelset Hall of Fame

The bad thing are they are somewhat heavy, I got this bike used from a guy who owns a bike shop on the Mass south coast. He had a set of DT swiss wheels and the bike weight just under 16 pounds, now it weights in at a hare under 17. The rear wheel also seems to have an issue with squeaking, which seems to manifest its self in the first 1,000 miles. I have seen numerous report of it online and have experienced it myself. I had my wheels serviced at the local bike shop where they were clean and relubed, which has fixed the problem. If it returns I may upgrade the internals as a am happy with the wheels other wise I have also had the rear wheel trued once after 9 months of use.

The Bike

I often talk about bike commuting to work. Heres some pictures of my bike in its current state, I probably average about 200 miles a week on it.