Superstar Switch SP XCX Wheelset

Barnseyyyy

Why are these wheels so cheap and so light. Are they worth buying?

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_ ... cts_id=826

njee20

I'd be surprised by their 'stiff' claims on a pretty light 24h wheelset, but they're cheap and light. Straight pull spokes can be a pain to find, but otherwise, go nuts.

poah

SP spokes aren't that hard to find. Even if you go into an LBS they might not have the spoke length you want.

Barnseyyyy

njee20 wrote:

I'd be surprised by their 'stiff' claims on a pretty light 24h wheelset, but they're cheap and light. Straight pull spokes can be a pain to find, but otherwise, go nuts.

Should they stand up to some hard trial use.

The Rookie

Do you mean. Trial or trails? They certainly won't stand Trial use, and to be honest I'd look for some 32 spoke for hard trail use.

rockmonkeysc

Switch freehubs are made from cheese. I broke my fifth in 18 months last night.

Chunkers1980

But everyone's not as rad as you.

OP - I'd say these are cheap race day wheels. Whack them on for light cheap wheels soley used for racing. Everyday use, I'd look at different wheels.

rockmonkeysc

It's nothing to do with hard riding. There is less than a millimetre of material behind the pawl and if you are aggressive on the climbs they crack at this point.
If you google it you will see it's not uncommon.

poah

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Switch freehubs are made from cheese. I broke my fifth in 18 months last night.

alternatively you ride far too hard for the spec of the hubs. you'd not d downhill on a set of crests would you :roll:

rockmonkeysc

And I don't downhill on these wheels. My current freehub lasted one 75km xc ride around the cotswolds, 60km around the Purbecks, and a long day on Exmoor that killed my legs. All those miles were just old fashioned xc riding, mostly bridleways.
I think they would last better on my downhill bike (if they fitted) because it's torque that kills them, not big hits. It's the pressure of the pawls on the <1mm thick aluminium.
I'm sure that if the spacer was a better fit it would give some support and stop the body cracking. As it is the spacer is 0.28mm smaller than the bore of the freehub body. In engineering terms, that's like a d1ck in a bucket. It's not just that I have a bad one, I have had a replacement spacer as well and the fit is within a few hundreths of the old one.

njee20

POAH wrote:

SP spokes aren't that hard to find. Even if you go into an LBS they might not have the spoke length you want.

Find me a good stock of a range of lengths of straight pull spokes? Madison do now distribute them at least, but CRC, Wiggle etc don't list anything. Hope carry stock of the ones to fit their wheels (which will be different to these), but you can walk into any LBS anywhere in the world and get j-bend spokes, not so straight pull.

poah

njee20 wrote:

POAH wrote:

SP spokes aren't that hard to find. Even if you go into an LBS they might not have the spoke length you want.

Find me a good stock of a range of lengths of straight pull spokes? Madison do now distribute them at least, but CRC, Wiggle etc don't list anything. Hope carry stock of the ones to fit their wheels (which will be different to these), but you can walk into any LBS anywhere in the world and get j-bend spokes, not so straight pull.

wheel builder I went to had SP spokes lol J bend too but they also have to be in the size you need.

bike-discount, rose, bike 24 all have SP spokes.

Chunkers1980

It's the interface too. The flanges on sp spoke are not always the same, j-bends are pretty much universal

njee20

POAH wrote:

njee20 wrote:

POAH wrote:

SP spokes aren't that hard to find. Even if you go into an LBS they might not have the spoke length you want.

Find me a good stock of a range of lengths of straight pull spokes? Madison do now distribute them at least, but CRC, Wiggle etc don't list anything. Hope carry stock of the ones to fit their wheels (which will be different to these), but you can walk into any LBS anywhere in the world and get j-bend spokes, not so straight pull.

wheel builder I went to had SP spokes lol J bend too but they also have to be in the size you need.

bike-discount, rose, bike 24 all have SP spokes.

But that's my point - a lot of bricks and mortar shops will carry a stock of j-bend spokes. Wheel builders are different - like I said you can now get boxes from Madison, which you didn't used to be able to. More thinking if you break a spoke.

Bike-Discount only sell boxes, 72 isn't all that useful.... Rose don't seem to do them at all. Bike24 do individual spokes, but paying €6 to ship one spoke from Germany is a PITA!

I stand by my original comment.

supersonic

Fora light use XC wheelset, go for it. You won't get any lighter.

njee20

Not without spending a whole chunk more certainly.

adamfo

njee20 wrote:

POAH wrote:

SP spokes aren't that hard to find. Even if you go into an LBS they might not have the spoke length you want.

Find me a good stock of a range of lengths of straight pull spokes? Madison do now distribute them at least, but CRC, Wiggle etc don't list anything. Hope carry stock of the ones to fit their wheels (which will be different to these), but you can walk into any LBS anywhere in the world and get j-bend spokes, not so straight pull.

This company seem to have a lot of single spokes

http://www.behindthebikeshed.co.uk/107/ ... 9IkD0+CA==

rockmonkeysc

You can't just pop in to your local shop and pick one up for a quid though.
My local shop has never let me down when I needed a J bend spoke. Pretty handy if you break a spoke and have a ride planned the next day.

poah

that's if they have one in your size - its still not difficult to get SP spokes. Will it take longer to get your wheel fixed, yes but its not impossible.

Chunkers1980

No one ever said it was impossible. Just a lot more faff.

Most j-benders don't differ by that much in 26" flavour lengths. If they do you can often get away as a temp fix by cutting them or using longer nipples.

njee20

If you're in the Alps, for example, every shop will have a load of j-bend spokes if you break one. They are far less likely to have straight pull ones. You're right, it's not impossible, and as Chunkers said, no one said it was, but they are harder to come by, and that has the potential to be a PITA.

You've obviously accepted this, but it doesn't change things.

FWIW, the link to Behind the Bike Shed shows they have 3 lengths of SP DT spokes, so still pretty useless, still waiting for a link to a shop with some decent choice...?

SuperstarComponents.com

We get the spokes direct from sapim in boxes of 3000, so I'm sure we will have spares for the rest of all time!

We have about 700,000 spokes instock at the moment

You only need to ask...

Neil (superstar)

njee20

That is of course excellent, but still not much use when you need one urgently.

cooldad

When I was very young I was a scout. Be Prepared. I have a few spare spokes for special occasions - my wheels are odd sized flat blades with different lacing patterns each side.

Chunkers1980

SuperstarComponents.com wrote:

We get the spokes direct from sapim in boxes of 3000, so I'm sure we will have spares for the rest of all time!

We have about 700,000 spokes instock at the moment

You only need to ask...

Neil (superstar)

I'd like to ask.

The only spokes you seem to actually sell are some coloured numbers, which weren't in stock last time I looked.

I have a set of your Pancetti 26" TL28 on Switch hubs so would like a few spares.

Out of interest Neil - perhaps it would be a good idea to ship wheels with a couple of spares for their lengths either side. Surely this is just a couple of quid (or less) to save people a fair amount of aggro.

supersonic

But shipping spokes hint that the wheels might fail. No need with a well built wheel. That should only snap if they get externally damaged.

poah

supersonic wrote:

But shipping spokes hint that the wheels might fail. No need with a well built wheel. That should only snap if they get externally damaged.

don't hope ship their wheels with spare spokes?

njee20

Yep 'Nuff said.

stubs

POAH wrote:

supersonic wrote:

But shipping spokes hint that the wheels might fail. No need with a well built wheel. That should only snap if they get externally damaged.

don't hope ship their wheels with spare spokes?

They should ship them with spare hubs. More likely to get used.