Nice article. I stopped caring about people buying super expensive and capable mountain bikes to mostly ride them around town a long time ago. And yeah, the stock bikes are boring anyway. It gets obvious at trade shows. I can walk the halls of Eurobike (not this year due to injury) and pass all sorts of 10-K-wonderbikes without much or any excitement. The small independent and custom stuff is what piques my interest.
As for the posed question of the advantages of bladed spokes: I see two. 1) They more durable. CX Ray are forged from Sapim Laser and the additional forging makes them stronger and more fatigue-resistant (CX Ray is rated for twice or even thrice as much load cycles as Laser if I recall that correctly). 2) They are easier to work with as you can prevent them from twisting with a simple tool.
July 12, 2022, 8:22 a.m. - Martn
Nice article. I stopped caring about people buying super expensive and capable mountain bikes to mostly ride them around town a long time ago. And yeah, the stock bikes are boring anyway. It gets obvious at trade shows. I can walk the halls of Eurobike (not this year due to injury) and pass all sorts of 10-K-wonderbikes without much or any excitement. The small independent and custom stuff is what piques my interest. As for the posed question of the advantages of bladed spokes: I see two. 1) They more durable. CX Ray are forged from Sapim Laser and the additional forging makes them stronger and more fatigue-resistant (CX Ray is rated for twice or even thrice as much load cycles as Laser if I recall that correctly). 2) They are easier to work with as you can prevent them from twisting with a simple tool.