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Collapsing rim after 18 months- seen anything like it?
I only noticed this yesterday on my Vitus gravel bike- must be some rubbish alloy (pictures coming next). I've never had this happen before, and I have wheels over 40 years old . Unsurprisingly, there is nothing definitive to indicate the rim manufacturer
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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51 comments
A chum of mine had a similar problem last week; turns out he also had WTB rims on a gravel bike, and noticed cracks when giving it the annual clean. My guess is that from strong, light cheap, WTB went with the latter two.
He's shrugged and bought some DT Swiss replacements.
I've worn out a couple of sets of rims: a set of HED Belgium + and a set of Mavic Open Pros (originals)....it happens....the rims weaken and fold out under the tyre pressure...though both had a few years at 12,000kms + in them - in all weather conditions.
I've even (stupidly) bent a rim trying to get a tyre on (Mavic Open Pro USTs - through not seating the tyre in the V...), but I haven't had spoke pull through yet. That's a new one. I usually buy (inexpensive) handbuilt wheels with replaceable components, using brass nipples where possible and a minimum of 32 spokes. If there's one thing I think I know about UK roads it is that they are going to get a lot worse before they get any better...
I can't be bothered with the aggravation of contacting Chain Reaction only to be told I've ruined it by cycling on rough roads. This ultra-crap replacement (no doubt Chain Reaction were elated at having taught me a lesson- they have) has only 28 spokes, whereas the crap original had 32. I'm told there is difficulty obtaining 28 hole rims, or ones with eyelets, but I'm awaiting news. In view of the apparently good hub, I'm going to have a decent rim put on if I can. Front wheel still OK, so it's worth putting off having to buy a supposedly 'good' pair. All the wheels reviewed on here seem to be made with non-eyelet rims.
Sorry to hear of your troubles wtjs, perhaps I can help with the tale of my damaged rim.
I bought a pair of Hunt's alloy wheels from the cheaper end of their range and the spokes started pulling through the rim of the front wheel after 6 months. One email, with photos, was all it took to get Hunt moving. They didn't need to see the rim and put a new one in the post within hours. They also paid the bill for my LBS to re-lace it, and sent a couple of spare spokes, just in case. Then they emailed me to make sure I was happy and to apologise again.
I know the rim shouldn't have failed, particularly after a short time of easy use, but the high level of customer care was certainly some compensation. I shall use them again. You might use them too, perhaps?
Thanks MtB. Hunt is my top choice at the moment if the re-rimming of the wheel isn't possible or doesn't work.
Though I've never understood exactly why, on my wheel building course, we were told never to reuse spokes... which then makes rebuilindg wheels really expensive.
Of course, the other problem is whwthe you can get a replacement rim of the exact dimensions of the original, because if you don't, you'll need different spokes anyway... and the saving on the hub Vs factory built wheel doesn't add up.
Extreme caution I suspect.
If the wheel was properly built and stress-relieved in the first place, and the spokes are stainless steel, then reusing them will be fine (provided, as you say, you can get the exact same rim). But you can usually only be sure of that if you built the wheel yourself, or know who built it and what process they used. Otherwise, playing safe and discarding the spokes reduces the chance that you'll end up with a dud wheel.
The saga drags on- the replacement wheel duly arrived today, but the bike is still not back on the road! I anticipated trouble with the wheel coming back without a disc- somebody would just throw it in a skip and not bother to consider the disc. I therefore cleverly removed the 160 TRP 6-bolt disc- however, the returns people cunningly thwarted my advance planning- they sent a centre-lock wheel with no disc, and no comment or documentation. The wheel bearings seem good and it's now Vitus-branded, the rim is true and unbranded. Did I hear that Wiggle owns Vitus but Wiggle is now owned by some German company? However, the original was 36 spoke and this is 28. I may be old-fashioned but that doesn't seem enough for a rear designed for rough roads. There are also no 'proper' eyelets, so I doubt this wheel will last even the 18 months of its predecessor. They also didn't pay the £11 postage for sending the wheel back to them. It's all a bit of a pain
I doubt this wheel will last even the 18 months of its predecessor
I was right. Rim now knackered in the same way. You wonder why it's worth building wheels as badly- all those decades of cycling and nothing like this! There are several cracks appearing at drive side spoke holes- clearly El-Cheapo wheel building machines just winch up tension on drive side spokes where the increased tension has less true-ing effect. Hub seems good, so I'll see if anybody makes decent replacement rims these days
Drive side spokes should be higher tension as they're at a steeper angle to allow for the cassette (and thus they have less truing effect on the rim). That rim is either not strong enough and/or they over-tensioned the wheel.
Meanwhile on my old Prime RR50 disc brake front wheel, I had a spoke nipple break suddenly as I was braking (for a red light of all things). The carbon fibre rim was more than strong enough and the nipple seemed quite corroded, but easily replaced and the wheel trued again (now consigned to being a spare wheel).
Rims made, clearly, from finest 100% pure cheddaranium.
If were you I'd buy new ones built from quality components by someone who knows what they're doing. Meanwhile, throw these back at Chain Reaction (again!) and when they replace them sell the replacements on eBay/Gumtree/Facebook Marketplace etc.
They're the wrong rims, Grommit!
Yes, I already had 2 QR's wih BOB fittings, so I just took the fittings and put them on a Robert Axle Project 12mm through axle which has worked very well. The gravel disc brake bike was off the road (replacement wheel due today, so back to the joys of discs) so I took my touring bike wih the trailer up to Coniston. The next day I came over Wrynose and had just got to the bottom when the front rim exploded with a load bang from the inner. This is a good Hewitt wheel but is 20 years old - that's rim braking for you, it wears through the rim. It was OK when I set out but the extra brake force requiired with the trailer finished it off. I was lucky not to fall at speed, and even luckier that friends were able to rescue me from Little Langdale back to the club hut and eventually deliver me, the bike and the trailer back to Garstang.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've only had this once, when I hit a pothole pretty hard - it was in an unlit tunnel (actually just a very wide bridge) and I had sunglasses on, so didn't see it.
Low spoke count Bontrager "Race" and wheel deformed enough to start rubbing the chain stay and chewing through the carbon.
Always put a bit of frame tape inside the chainstays on all my bikes now, just in case of a repeat.
Just to complete the story: Chain Reaction have finally agreed to replace the wheel, 2 weeks after it arrived and was signed for at their 'Returns Centre' at Bilston, West Midlands. It didn't get visibly worse after I rode around on it for another couple of weeks and amazingly didn't go significantly out of true.
I've just realised that no-one took the bait when I included a photo of the tyre where it states 'e-bike ready'. I'm disappointed.
I have now sent the wheel back to Chain Reaction Warranty returns via Parcelforce-£11 tracked. I think they have now given up the 'contact the manufacturer' dodge. All of the spoke hole cracks in the WTB i23 rim were on the drive side holes, with none on the disc side- so there must be some bad machine wheel building going on with drive side spokes tightened too hard.
I suppose the point is that I've had many bikes over 60 years of cycling and have never seen this - just about all the spoke holes show the circumferential crack and 2 of them are already pulling through. It's sold as the Vitus Substance Adventure 'gravel bike' and has spent almost all it's time on ordinary roads around North Lancashire or cycle camping trips towing a trailer- not a very hard life, and the spokes are intact and all original. Cleaning has nothing to do with it, and it's pretty clean anyway for a bike just back from the Lakes!
Chain Reaction denied all responsibility for the hub failure and referred me to JoyTech who don't reply and then said 'buy a new wheel'. The irksome notion that all failures are due to someone else, preferably the cyclist, must be resisted so it'll be the Small Claims Court procedure. I'll probably win, as I did 20 years ago against a travel company.
Don't want to be rude, but I have some experience lugging a trailer behind a bike and I can attest that the general OEM racing or gravel wheel is NOT designed to take the load of any trailer. I towed a kidstrailer with two kids in it for a couple of months and completely wrecked a rear wheel because of it. The loads increase dramatically. I had to ask specifically for a reinforced rim, high spoke count and a MTB specific hub. On a touring bike. :-S
Nonsense!- and from another of these dodgy single-posters.There is no load on the bike wheel, because it's all on the single trailer wheel. And I have a lot of experience on all kinds of bikes, including pannier loaded touring where all the load is on the bike wheel.
Also I presume you probably aren't carrying 2 kids worth of kit around?
If there is a single trailer wheel, it sounds like that wheel will be behind the load, but under it. So some load will also be applied to the bike. A two wheel trailer may well have the axle at the centre of gravity, but a single wheel will normally be behind the load, whether it is a tagalong bike or a cargo trailer such as this https://www.sprocketscycles.com/products/topeak-journey-trailer-for-12mm....
The problem with this Aristotelian armchair theoretician stuff is that it is trumped by the invention of experimentation and hypothesis testing: place load on trailer, put finger under attachment arm where it clamps onto rear bike axle, determine that the upward force required of the finger is entirely negligible compared with the downward force exerted on the rear axle by my fat arse. Hypothesis that the loaded trailer exerts any extra significant force on the rear wheel is rejected at any level.
Oh, so you are saying your fat arse really caused it - they will want their wheel back !
Yes, my body weight sat on the saddle while steering the bike along Lancashire and Cumbria roads as opposed to the alternative use case of leaving the bike in my bedroom to protect it was what 'caused' the collapse of the rim. However, in the absence of a published rider weight limit of 'under 74 kg' and 'gravel bike only to be used on smooth roads', I don't think they would get away with it.
I have been looking at trailers and wondering how they attach. I have a through axle so it seems that I need to buy a new one specifically for towing. Does this sound right ?
Yes. I have a BOB Yak which came with a qr skewer, which works great for my road bike Have just updated my MTB, so had to buy a custom thru axle with the relevant lugs. Robertaxleproject was the manufacturer, and I got it thru (geddit?) SJS cycles. Both companies were great to deal with. I'd advise talking to RAP to ensure you identify the right one. The new axle was just shy of £60. They do all kinds, not just yaks
Thanks for that. I see there is a handy wizard to work out which robert axle to get.
I was looking at the homcom trailer which recently appears in 'pictures of my bike thread' but I'm not sure what the precise hitch is other than universal although the robert one says 'These fit any trailer that has two wheels and a single point of attachment to the axle'.
Be careful of the wizard (the printed off sheet that helps you identify teh right axle) - it's great until it's not. My Thru axle's cone washer snaps on over the bolt head - this thru (geddit?) the measurements off. Both RAP and SJS were really cool about getting it sorted out though (hence my recommendation). The Wizard was great for identifying the correct thread ptich though
If you get onto the RAP website they have a chatbox thingy which they respond to directly - it's a small company. I went through it all with Tory who pretty much knows them inside out, so with exchanged photos we worked out where it went wrong. Cut teh story short, if you give them a shout with some photos of the hitch I'll bet they'll be able to confirm any advice.
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