After a short break from work due to quite a nasty chest cold, and having some repairs made to the bike. I cycled to work this morning, quite comfortably and easily the new rear wheel giving me no problems whatsoever.
I worked out that the previous rear wheel must have travelled somewhere in the region of 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometres for the Europeans) before giving out, the rim only doing slightly less after being replaced previously and built on to the original hub. The guys at Scott cycles offered me a choice either a new hub built into my existing rim or a whole new wheel. In the end a had an entirely new wheel for the quite reasonable sum of £45, although I spent about £56 after having the job of transferring the cassette, disc, tire and a new tube fitting. All I had to do was put the wheel in and adjust the rear calliper a touch.
I must say the new wheel is slightly trick, for me anyway with black rim, hub, and spokes; it looks quite cool stuck in the back of my muddy old Kona. After a week or two it’ll be covered in muck and blend in but at the moment it looks quite nice.
To celebrate riding again (I was off the bike for a whole week), I have ordered three new bottle holders, two bottles and a mount to sling one of the holders under the down tube. I’ll keep the lower holder for the airzounds air tank so the thing is out of the way, and I can remove the nasty Velcro mount they supplied.
Peace.