Are Fulcrum bearings covered under warranty?

moyesie

I bought a Genesis Equilibrium with Fulcrum DBX wheels last Oct, since then they have covered 800 miles, mostly dry (honest!) and on giving the bike a once over today the bearings, both axel and free hub appear to be on the way out.

Is this likely to be covered under warranty? I'm anticipating the 'wear & tear' card to be used.

Although bought from a localish shop (20 miles) the hassle may just be too much and I may have to suck up paying £40 from my own shop to have them rebuilt.

shortfall

moyesie wrote:

I bought a Genesis Equilibrium with Fulcrum DBX wheels last Oct, since then they have covered 800 miles, mostly dry (honest!) and on giving the bike a once over today the bearings, both axel and free hub appear to be on the way out.

Is this likely to be covered under warranty? I'm anticipating the 'wear & tear' card to be used.

Although bought from a localish shop (20 miles) the hassle may just be too much and I may have to suck up paying £40 from my own shop to have them rebuilt.

Not familiar with that particular wheel but Fulcrum/campagnolo use cartridge bearings in some of their whselsets. Having owned two sets of these (Ventos and Bullet 80s) I am speaking from experience when I say that they're absolute dog sh1t. Quite why a company that has a well deserved reputation for the quality of it's cup and cone bearings sticks these horrendous items in any of its wheels is beyond me. The ones in my Bullets (which at the time were a £600 wheelset) were rough out of the box and then partially seized after less than a 1000 dry miles. They're only sealed on one side but I don't think this is the problem, they're just crap. Suggest you switch them for a set from your local bearing supplier which will probably be cheaper anyway.

londoncommuter

PlanetX (perhaps being lazy) said there was no chance of a warranty with some Campag Zonda wheels I had with the same as you, bearings and freehub bearings not lasting. Some cheapo replacement ones from ebay seemed fine. I sold the bike so I'm not sure if they're still going or not.

bbrap

I've had to replace bearings on every Campag wheel I've ever owned, recent wheels (last 5 years) seem the worst and original bearings only seem to last 1000 miles at best. Once changed for decent bearings from a bearing supplier (not bike shop) they seem to go on forever. Not a particularly difficult or expensive exercise but one which really should not be needed.

casatikid

My LBS Cliff Pratts in Hull replaced mine on my Fulcrum even though they were almost 2 years old.Great shop.
Had no probs with these 6 years down the line.

homers_double

£40? Thats steep.

Find the bearing size and get some online, tap old bearings out, use old bearings as a drift and relace with new.

The more precise way of doing it is to find an 18yr old blonde Swedish virgin and ask her to squeeze them in gently just using her inner thighs.

If option two is hard to get past the wife, option one works every time.

Vino'sGhost

Ive had the same rubbish in Zipp Hubbs, once replaced they seem to be fine for ages. Maybe a shipping issue at some point in the manufacture or distribution?

dee4life2005

Incidentally, I've just had a look at a Colleagues set of Fulcrum Racing 7's - that lasted about 4000 miles before the bearings gave up. The bearings are 6803-2RS ... but only have a seal on the outer side. I thought the "2RS" part of the name implied that they were double-sealed?

laurentian

The cartridge bearings on my Racing 5s were rumbling after a couple of thousand miles. They are sealed on one side and pretty crappy. Drifted them out and replaced them all with double sealed versions (cost very little) with the exception of the one that is behind a circlip in the rear wheel. God knows how to get this out - obviously the circlip needs removing but it still looks like the body is smaller than the diameter of the bearing - can't find any meaningful info on the internet to solve this but if you have any ideas, please shout!

dee4life2005

If you have a small enough pair of circlip pliers that they fit into the freehub body to that circlip then getting the clip out is relatively easy, although it may take a couple of tries as it's a wee bit fiddly.

As for that bearing, once the circlip is removed the bearing needs to come out the same end of the freehub as the first bearing, so you need to tap it out twice. Once from where it's seated into the internal chamber, and then from there through where the outer bearing sits.

It's a similar process in reverse, pressing the bearing through where the outer bearing is seated into the internal chamber, and then pressing it into it's final place, before replacing the circlip.

It makes more sense when you're actually doing it ... I'm sure I worked from a Youtube video, I'll see if I can find it.

keezx

laurentian wrote:

The cartridge bearings on my Racing 5s were rumbling after a couple of thousand miles. They are sealed on one side and pretty crappy. Drifted them out and replaced them all with double sealed versions (cost very little) with the exception of the one that is behind a circlip in the rear wheel. God knows how to get this out - obviously the circlip needs removing but it still looks like the body is smaller than the diameter of the bearing - can't find any meaningful info on the internet to solve this but if you have any ideas, please shout!

Drill a 2 mm hole from the outside of the freehub in the groove.
Push the clip out with a spoke .
Job done, 5 minutes....

laurentian

dee4life2005 wrote:

If you have a small enough pair of circlip pliers that they fit into the freehub body to that circlip then getting the clip out is relatively easy, although it may take a couple of tries as it's a wee bit fiddly.

As for that bearing, once the circlip is removed the bearing needs to come out the same end of the freehub as the first bearing, so you need to tap it out twice. Once from where it's seated into the internal chamber, and then from there through where the outer bearing sits.

It's a similar process in reverse, pressing the bearing through where the outer bearing is seated into the internal chamber, and then pressing it into it's final place, before replacing the circlip.

It makes more sense when you're actually doing it ... I'm sure I worked from a Youtube video, I'll see if I can find it.

That's great - thank you. The YouTube vid would be great if you can find it . . .

laurentian

Is this it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RvHCM4_J9k

Currently under discussion on Workshop forum . . .