Blu, sporting Velocity Dyad wheels, on the bus for the Brenerpass in the Austrian Alps.
I've written about Velocity Dyad wheels in the past and my reviews have been positive. But that was before I had the chance to give them the test by fire that was my ride from Seattle to Rome; a trip of more than 5,000 miles. My impression? The Dyad is a superior touring wheel. In five months of tortous roads and rocky paths, I never had to put a wrench to a single spoke. Both wheels stayed true and round, and these were machine-built wheels.
I did have my rear wheel fail in Germany, though, and I had to replace it with a cheap sixty-Euro job that stayed true for exactly two days. After that, I had to stop every couple of hours to re-true it. The experience of a badly-built wheel really made me appreciate the Dyads.
However, there was that one failure outside of Dessau and we can't ignore that, can we? Here's what happened: the rear rim split along the braking surface and caused a bulge which precluded the use of my brakes. When I contacted Velocity, they shipped me a new wheel right away. In fact, they recommended I go with a heftier rim, the Chukkar, which they provided free of charge.
Why did the Dyad fail? Who knows. It might have been the weight I was carrying, or maybe it just wore out, or there could have been a manufacturing flaw, hey, shit happens, but the fact that they stayed true and round, together with the great customer service I got when it broke bad, makes me want to give the Dyads four and a half stars.
I'm looking forward to giving the Chukkars a good workout during the next leg of my around the world bike trip. Let's see if I can't beat the hell out of them.
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