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Wheel designers are constantly looking for efficiencies but some current trends are turning out to be problematic. As with carbon clinchers I just wish they would put carbon spokes to bed now…I really don’t get it.
Apart from the fact that carbon spoked wheels are very expensive, in most cases you can’t replace or repair them. In my view carbon spokes are completely unnecessary and can actually be dangerous. For example we were looking at a crashed front wheel this morning and someone commented just how sharp and exposed the fractured ends are. In a rim failure alloy spokes tend to bend and buckle. Carbon spokes, due to the long fibre construction, snap but stay rigid. Even if some manufacturers re-enforce their spokes with kevlar they are still mighty sharp.
If I hit a pothole I don’t know how I would feel about landing on a porcupine…