Failed chinese carbon clincher wheels
gingejp
Posts: 23
My advice on buying carbon parts directly from china. Don't do it. This happened and is due to a defective rim. The front is starting to do exactly the same thing in exactly the same place. To sort it out I have to pay postage in both directions, circa £130. I suggested they just post me out 2 new rims, but they refuse to do that. I bought the rims from ebay 'arron-bike' which is the ebay division of a company called d-bike.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/arron-bike
http://www.d-bike.com
I haven't hit anything with these wheels, it's just poor quality manufacturing.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/arron-bike
http://www.d-bike.com
I haven't hit anything with these wheels, it's just poor quality manufacturing.
0
Posts
My advice would be get a set from Planet-X or similar based in the UK.
Are you sure? I thought that all these companies have the same line in terms of faults - post back at your expense which translates to no effective warranty as the postage costs are high.
You can't get wheels like that from Planet-X. They don't sell carbon clinchers. Probably for the reasons seen in your photo..........
Who happen to use Chinese rims much like 99% of the market.
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPPXF45C/p ... r-wheelset
Unless it's because it's not a FULL carbon clincher and has an alloy rim ...
That's obviously the reason... good morning...
Slowbike, Rolf was referring to full carbon, not alu with a carbon wrap. They only do carbon tubs. If they did carbon clinchers I would buy them. I imagine they can't be doing with the perceived level ofwarranty claims???
Perhaps I am deluding myself, only time will tell!
Indeed Grill! they (PX) haven't yet made the leap to full carbon clinchers yet though. Give them time
morning ...
Are you local? We will have no trouble here.
(Please excuse the obscure reference
Sometimes seen bimbling around on a purple Fratello Disc or black and red Aprire Vincenza.
I gathered - it was just for clarity
That's not obscure, classic British comedy
What pressure were you pumping your tyres at?
Indeed they do source from the far east. there is nothing wrong with a lot of products from China etc. But at least if there is a warranty issue, Planet-X or any other reputable UK company would sort it out, without you having to pay £130 in postage first. The postage basically means you've got no warranty if ordering directly from China.
I did ask if they would just post out 2 new rims, but the answer was no, post them back first.
To be fair to them would you "just post out two new rims" without inspecting them first?
As someone else already asked - what pressure were you running at?
110psi...
Depends if you value customer service. From the picture, you can clearly see the rim has failed. If posted back, they would only throw in the bin. If you understand the customers quandary that it costs more to post back than a new rim, then they could offer to supply new rim. I'll still have to pay to have wheels built back up again. Posting out new rims and having me get them built up at this end, is the most cost effective solution, that keeps the customer happy and protects arron-bike reputation.
Who the hell is going to order anything of arron-bike or www.d-bike.com after reading this thread?
Which is within the normal specs for chinese rims at 120-130 PSI.
However, I don't expect your pump to be overly accurate and pressure changes linearly as a function of the temperature, although not by a lot (PV = nRT applies, where V,n and R are constant and T is in Kelvin), roughly you gain 10% for every 30 degrees or so... extensive braking can heat up your rims to 50-60 degrees Celsius, so you gain about 10-20% in pressure.
I think you were well within the required pressure, but I would never exceed 90-100 PSI on carbon clinchers, I'd rather fit a bigger tyre and ride 80-90.
That said, censored carbon or censored manufacturing
Whether you like it or not, that isn't how the returns process works. For all they know, you could just be blagging some new rims using a pic you found on the internet. If I was them, I'd want to see the rims first, as well. 'Buyer beware' unfortunately.
As I said earlier, the rim seems to have failed along the line of some kind of rectangular shape in the carbon - would be interesting to know what that is and why it's there...
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The rim has failed at a weak point, which as pointed out, is a rectangular shape that looks like a patch. Speaking to Planet-X, this is how carbon is manufactured and is not necessarily a bodged repair, but it is the weak point of the rim and thats exactly where it's failed. They are just poor quality rims and it was only a matter of time before they did fail, heavy braking or not.
"censored carbon or censored manufacturing" - Correct, so steer well clear. My advice is only to use UK suppliers.
Indeed, so don't buy directly from China. returning anything will cost you more than replacing via UK, so essentially they come with no guarantee.
yes - but in this day of the internet confirmation could be gathered by using a video call ... it's not as though Skype is prohibitively expensive - someone from the company can have an initial look and establish if they believe it is a manufacturing fault or something else that needs greater investigation. They could even agree to send new rims and ask for the existing rims to be cut whilst on the call ...
Thing is, unless they are going to refund the postage if they agree with you that the rim was faulty, you are definitely down £130 just for them to look at the rims. Therefore, they could charge you £130 for the new rims, and not to send the old ones back, and no-one would be worse off than the initial proposal but at least you'd know that the money you were spending would get you the new pair of rims. And, of course, they could charge you a lot less and still not be out of pocket themselves.
I have seen Farsports rims, other Chinese rims and I have seen Zipp, Enve and Mavic RIMS. I don't know whether they are worth 4 times the price, but they are significantly better rims. The Zipp 303 FC and the Mavic C 40 in particular are incredibly well built and finished.
SOME Chinese rims don't even have a homogeneous nipple bed, meaning some hole require long nipples as the bed is thicker, others could do with short ones, basically they would require different spoke lengths for different holes