Looks as though my front wheel has seen it’s last ride. Although only 100 days span between it’s first frisky ride to its final frolic in France, it lived the high life that many wheels dream of. It will be sadly missed by friends and family alike. In lieu of flower bouquets, please send cash.
The autopsy is still pending though witnesses and Reynolds authorities are not ruling out the possibly of: suicide (though a suicide note has not surfaced to date), fowl play (proud Mavic nationalists are currently in questioning), homicide (by its own rider in a rage of cyclomestic violence), or incurable superthermal carbon cancer (a rare disease that can occur in overheated carbon clinchers – many folks who like to vocalize their opinion about bad things say it could be caused by high-fructose corn syrup, aspartame, politicians, capitalism, or a dangerous zeitgeist cocktail of all 4 conspiring together).
A few pictures from the morgue. Although I used the front brake only a few times for emergencies, the cancerous bumps ate through almost 1/2 of a pretty new Swissstop Yellow pad. The bumps are only on one side of the front wheel. The three other brake tracks are fine.
One of 18 bumps on the rim
Bumps (after cleaning the brake track)
The Wayward Cyclist 
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you used the wrong pads. Yellow swiss stops are not recommended for reynolds rims. That’s why you failed.
Hi Dude,
Actually no. Reynolds recommends their own pads as well as Swissstop Yellow pads with the yellows having slightly better braking – not to mention being easier to find in bike shops. As far as I know, these are the only 2 pads you can use and not void your warranty. The Reynolds blue pads are new for late 2010/2011 and are now preferred over the aforementioned pads due to lower heat build-up.
How long was the descent and what was the grade of the decline? I’ve got a set of these ordered and now I’m a little worried.
Basically the situation was that I descended 1,500 feet with reasonable braking (narrow, twisty, road with poor surface on the side of a mountain with no shoulders or guardrails) which was fine but then took a detour down a ‘new road’ that turned out to be a glorified driveway for villas perched on the mountain. It was very windy and had sand and gravel on every turn and descended another 1000 feet. Since it probably wasn’t a ‘real road’, the grade was super steep, around 28% I think. Typically would only encounter this type of steepness on a mountain bike. Toss in the fact that I ‘had’ to be on the brakes for the dirt in the corners and that it was a sunny 90F day and things heat up quickly. It still probably would be ‘ok’ except that the 28% grade intersected the main road with a stop sign requiring 100% braking power after 15 minutes of descending.
I’m confident that I will never come across that kind of braking on the road bike again. I would have no hesitation in riding 2010 DV rims down just about anything. I might be ‘careful’ not to use too much brake on something like Stelvio Pass. But most people don’t ride 60 hairpin curves on their regular ride. It did just fine on Sa Calobra, Tourmalet, Aspin, Brenner, Timmelsjoch, Jaufenpass, Aitana, Jezebel… all pretty epic descents. I won’t worry too much about it.
I had a pair of 32 ul tubular and 2 pairs of dv46 ul tubular wheels fail on me! All the same problem! The rims failed! They cracked and warped almost looking like they had melted. I’m experienced at racing riding bikes for years! I had the stratus 46 carbon tubulars and still have them and they are working fine 5 + years later!
I used the blue pads and nothing else.
Clearly a problem with the carbon lay up as they changed it now!
Although Reynolds suggested I was doing something wrong.
Not true they are just not fit for purpose.
Your story sounds a lot like mine on my old Edge 65 Clinchers: http://themanleyreport.blogspot.com/2009/10/levis-granfondo-carbon-clincher-failure.html