RS10 cracking rims

arthur_scrimshaw

Cleaning the bike today I noticed that I had 4 cracks propagating from the drive side spokes



The wheels are about two years old and done about 2500 miles,original on the bike. I guess all warranties are expired but wondered if there is any point contacting Shimano as this doesn't seem to be a rare problem after doing a web search?
These are cheap wheels and will probably get some handbuilts to replace them, just felt that this was poor seeing how little I've used the bike.

heez29

Warranty wise mileage shouldn't be an issue as you should be "wearing" the rim through before you'd expect to bin them and Shimano have a two year warranty anyway. If it's just out of that the distributor may want to see them anyway. Contact where you bought it from as they should crack personally.

ElectronShepherd

Even if a nominal warranty has expired, you probably have some rights under the Sale of Goods Act.

Bear in mind that almost no-one posts on the internet "the bike I bought a year ago is working fine and nothing's gone wrong", so the fact that you can find a number of posts about cracked rims may not indicate a wide problem as such.

keef66

Unless you weigh 20 stone that's certainly not normal. Whether it's a weak rim or the wheel's been built with the spokes over tensioned, Shimano may want to know about it, so I'd suggest trying to get them replaced under warranty via the retailer who supplied them.

My RS10's are 8 years old now and have probably covered 15,000 miles. I'm keeping a close eye on the wear indicators now, but otherwise the rims appear in perfect condition. Certainly no signs of cracking around the spoke holes.

arthur_scrimshaw

Cheers for the replies, I'll give Evans a call and see how responsive they are, I'm 13.5 stone so no lightweight but not that heavy either?

The picture is the worst example, the other 3 spoke holes are just showing hairline cracks but I can see the way it's going. Is the fact that it's drive side only significant?

keef66

The drive side spokes will be under the highest tension, so if there is a weakness in the rim it's understandable that it is failing there first. Still not acceptable though.

Semantik

You're not alone -the same thing happened to me with a rear RS10 after a couple of K miles- the rim cracked round nearly all the driveside spokes. Went in the bin. Good luck with warranty claim!

kirkee

I have the same problem with my rear Campag Khamsin asymmetric rear wheel. Its no more than 18 months old. I dont use it any longer. I did the Paris Roubaix club sportive on them and all winter miles. I just thought it was maybe due to the heavy unusual use I had given them and also I considered the 20 spoke pattern to be too few. I guess the less spokes the tighter they have to be to keep the wheel stiff, also like your rims no eyelets. Thats putting more stress onto the rim where the nipples are . Your wheel may be similar in design, or have more or less spokes?

arthur_scrimshaw

Well I've just had a call from Evans, they will have a new back wheel ready for me in a few days as Madison have credited them for my wheel. It took a while (but I wasn't chasing it hard for the first 4 weeks) - so it was worth the effort after all.

veronese68

Good news. Nice to be told when something is resolved properly.

keef66

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19735195#p19735195]Arthur Scrimshaw[/url] wrote:

Well I've just had a call from Evans, they will have a new back wheel ready for me in a few days as Madison have credited them for my wheel. It took a while (but I wasn't chasing it hard for the first 4 weeks) - so it was worth the effort after all.

Excellent result!

Mine are still perfectly fine after 8 years and a lot of abuse; don't think there's much of front the brake track remaining now, so they owe me nothing.

Your experience and that of others suggests to me something changed in the manufacture / building of the things. Weaker batch of alloy, thinner profile, slightly higher D.S. spoke tension etc