Broken Rim

[Tom B]

I have a Ridgeback Flight 01 with standard Alex Rims R450.

The bike is about 9 months old and today 2km into a bit of a fun run with the girlfriend the rim failed.

I am not sure exactly what happened but whilst hill climbing I felt a bit of a crack which caused me to come out of the pedals, about 300m later I was traveling at about 20mph and turned into a sharp left turn, as i got my weight properly into the turn the back wheel skipped and jammed, I just about managed to get my feet out (first proper ride in clip in shoes) and stay upright and in the road.

Upon examination the rear wheel was clearly buckled and jammed against the frame.

Closer examination showed the wheel rim was cracked and the joining pin? was visible and rusty.

The road surface has in the last couple of weeks been totally resurfaced and is as smooth as a baby's bum, post underwear change examination of the road could not find a pot hole or imperfection either at the point of the first jolt or at the point of failure.

The bike has only done about 6-800k if that, never off road, never abused, they tyres even still have their "hairs on". The crack is behind the labels on the rim and could have been propagating for ages as i wouldn't have seen it when cleaning etc. As someone who pretty much cycles for a living I am fastidious in doing M-Checks before starting and didnt' spot anything. The wheel has always been true and never needed truing. The bike runs disks and thus wear isnt an issue.


I have emailed the retailer I bought the bike from to see what their attitude to a warranty claim is, my feeling is I have a fair chance resorting to SOGA but I dont really want to have to fight and of course they could split hairs and simply replace the wheel leaving me to pay wheel building fees ( okay only a tenner but still)

What is the forums view, manufacturing defect, or my fault?


Pics

http://tinyurl.com/k723rep

 

[themosquitoking]

Manufacturing defect, your gears are on the wrong side.

The rim looks like a crack along the seam to me, another manufacturing defect assuming you mean 6-800 miles and not 6-800 000. If you cycled that far your bike probably deserves new wheels.

 

[Globalti]

Take it straight back to the retailer.

 

[BSRU]

It is not the first time I have read about Alex rims failing.

 

[jay clock]

The dog ate it

 

[Tom B]

Manufacturing defect, your gears are on the wrong side.

Gears are now on the window sil! :-)

The rim looks like a crack along the seam to me, another manufacturing defect assuming you mean 6-800 miles and not 6-800 000. If you cycled that far your bike probably deserves new wheels.

[/quote]

Yup 600 - 800miles :-)



UKBikesDepot have forwarded my pictures on to Ridgeback to see what they say. Fingers Crossed.


Do you think the earlier ping/jolt could have been the rim cracking and then the wheel buckled on the corner/under braking?

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I took an RS10 back to Planet-X after a found a fracture 11 months after purchase and nearly 7,000 mile they replace the wheel set with some new RS11's and a new 2 year warranty, so I cant see you having a problem.

 

[Tom B]

Just to update this thread with the outcome...

The retailer accepted the claim without issue, however claimed they was having difficulty sourcing a replacement wheel to send me and offered to send me one from a display bike.

In the interim I had a quote locally for a local company I use for other stuff to build me a wheel. The retailer simply paid for the new wheel (rim, hub, spokes, nipples and build - I reused the cassette and disk) without complaint.

10/10 from me, and as such i think it is only fair to name them as

http://www.ukbikesdepot.com/


The only thing that could have been better was their comms, I had to chase them a couple of times for updates.

 

[Cuchilo]

Do you still have the girlfriend ? Rim failure in front of anyone is bad enough but in front of your GF

 

[Tom B]

Do you still have the girlfriend ? Rim failure in front of anyone is bad enough but in front of your GF

Yes, however at the time we was out with the GF and her sister. The sister fell off laughing at me and hit a stone wall :-)..... and got all the sympathy!