Upon cleaning this morning I discovered cracks emanating from the spoke holes on my rear rim. 11 out of the 32 are cracked to some degree. Clearly time for a new rim before this one fails disastrously!
It is a 2006 Thorn Raven with a Rohloff and son dynamo hub up front. Current rims are Mavic EX721 Ceramic. For those that are interested they have done in excess of 14,000 miles of which about half was loaded touring. Front rim is fine, doesn't show any signs of failing.
Anecdotally I had thought recently my rear brake performance had deteriorated and couldn't find a reason for it, pads were fine, brake surface i had cleaned properly, cables were fine, etc. The cracks in the rim I believe can account for that loss in performance.
So I need a new rim, I don't believe the Mavics I have are still available and anyhow I would have thought a better rim is now available. What do people recommend? I want strength and will accept the weight penalty for that but not something ridiculous, I'm light myself c.70kg so that helps.
Also if by any chance someone can recommend a wheel builder that is somewhere near Watford, Hertfordshire that would help massively!
thanks in advance
Iain
