Problems with Dura Ace 7850 wheels

Rich K47

While descending Hardknott yesterday my front Dura Ace wheel broke. It was probably the sixth time they'd been ridden and I haven't crashed or hit anything hard. Apart from being upset about the wheel itself I'm pretty relieved not to have been hurt as a result. Essentially the black cladding round two of the spokes has lifted and split and the wheel went very badly out of shape instantly. Not good at all and especially disappointing given how much they cost and the good reviews. Has anyone else had similar problems? If so what did Madison do about it?

Monty Dog

These wheels have a pretty good reputation, so hopefully it's a rogue. That said, a descent like Hardknott is seriously hard on the wheels because the rippled road surface and constant braking puts a lot of load onto the rim. Take it back to the dealer and hope that Madison have got some in stock - their Warranty returns don't have a great reputation for speedy response - make a big issue about it being a product safety issue and the consequences in other circumstances could have been far graver - don't let the shop fob you off, they are the ones responsible for making good your situation.

mrushton

Is this one of the alu/carbon composite rims? If so, there was a recall notice about them sometime back. Might be worth a Google to see if your wheel has a fault in which case you'll get a new one.

Mozza1

The recall was for the spoke hole plugs (to be replaced with rim tape) & had absolutely nothing to do with the construction method/materials used in the rim.

dennisn

Monty Dog wrote:

These wheels have a pretty good reputation, so hopefully it's a rogue. That said, a descent like Hardknott is seriously hard on the wheels because the rippled road surface and constant braking puts a lot of load onto the rim. Take it back to the dealer and hope that Madison have got some in stock - their Warranty returns don't have a great reputation for speedy response - make a big issue about it being a product safety issue and the consequences in other circumstances could have been far graver - don't let the shop fob you off, they are the ones responsible for making good your situation.

Since I build my own wheels I'm kind of wondering how shops that sell "factory" wheels
deal with this problem. Do they just send them back and the "factory" either says yes or
no to a new wheel? It would be interesting to observe how the "factory" determines
whether the wheel failed through abuse / neglect or poor quality. I know some years back Mavic never did anything about a couple of rims I had, cracking around the eyelets.
(tubular).

Dennis Noward

agnello

not isolated. i had a blow out going down the glandon that i documented on here. ruined my marmotte last year.

once these wheels go out of true they are very hard to get back again.

shimano weren't interested when i first reported it through stonehenge cycles. since then they've sent out the rim tape that Mozza spoke of. i must get round to writing that letter to shimano... complete with photos of my skinned arse and shoulder!