Rim Cracked?

neal1984

Ok so a few days ago I swapped out the Tektro pads for some Swissstop Greens. Since then there has been a noticeable noise coming from the front wheel under braking. I thought I might have a slight 'ding on the braking surface so I was a bit lazy and didn't bother checking it for a few days. Until tonight where I found this:


SO I thought S*** I've ridden 3 days on a cracked rim over S*** roads. Blimey I've been lucky. So as I want to ride tomorrow and haven't got time to sort a new wheel I thought I'd borrow one off the 'summer' bike (Has cheap wheels anyway). So after fitting that I removed the tube a tyre off the 'cracked rim' to inspect further only to realise it's actually where the rim is joined in manufacturing. Checked all my other wheels and a hairline is there to a certain extent but nowhere near as noticeable as the one I've just removed:




So my question is, is this rim damaged or safe to use? It's only 10 months old but the roads around my area are pretty poor.

My thoughts are that its prob not worth risking as I'll only replace it with a R501 or something else cheap and as you can feel the imperfection it is likely to eat away at the pads anyway. Has anyone else had this?

Sorry for the small pictures but I can never seem to get decent sized pic's to upload!

rickeverett

looks buggered to me.

the more it takes the worse it will get. I wouldn't ride it, especially if its just become noticeable- its obviously wasnt there before.

if its a cheap commuter or Winter bike, Ribble are selling the Shimano R501's for something like 60 odd quid.

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... himwhfr202

Cheap, Roll well and smooth+ pretty robust- chuck a pair of those on.

neal1984

Yeh that's what I thought and to be honest even the R501's are prob still better wheels than the ones on there. Just want to make sure I'm not just throwing money away for no reason.

ugo.santalucia

RIm is gone... in theory there is room for a warranty claim, as this is not tear and wear... see if it makes sense going that route

desweller

Dress it out with a stone. It'll be OK.

keef66

Some rims are joined with pins and welded, others are just welded. Yours looks like the latter and the weld is failing. Since it's less than a year old I'd say it's worth trying for a warranty replacement.

Don't carry on riding it; if the weld fails completely when you hit a pothole you could be shopping for new teeth as well as a new wheel.

(I too have just put R501's on the winter bike; Ribble's price was too good to resist)

neal1984

keef66 wrote:

Some rims are joined with pins and welded, others are just welded. Yours looks like the latter and the weld is failing. Since it's less than a year old I'd say it's worth trying for a warranty replacement.

Don't carry on riding it; if the weld fails completely when you hit a pothole you could be shopping for new teeth as well as a new wheel.

(I too have just put R501's on the winter bike; Ribble's price was too good to resist)

I'll try and pursue a warranty claim as the mileage is pretty low. I won't risk riding it as safety comes first really.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

If the warranty claim fails I've then got to decide whether to get some R501s for the winter bike or get some decent wheels for my summer bike and use the Mavic Cx21 rims off that for the winter bike. That's a tough call!

neal1984

Credit where credits due Halfords offered a replacement with no questions (or receipt) asked so excellent service (for once).

Ivery nearly ordered some Ultegra 6700 wheels today from Ribble (£199) so blinding value but I think I need to drop a bit of weight first (currently 13st 9lbs) so will wait till next year.

Thanks again all.