cracked rims. cheap or damaged?..

[stu_sirrus]

6-8 months ago I bought my sirrus.. It has got factory fitted alexrims. I have had no problems with them until recently. I noticed I had 3 or four cracks around the rim. Is it a problem? the largest is about half an inch across either side of one of the spokes.

I got a puncture, although I stopped and pushed the bike as soon as I noticed. I was wondering whether riding it even for a short time could have caused the cracks. I was wondering whether it is reasonable to take it to the shop and say it has broken due to manafacturing flaw or if it is one of those tghing

 

[Herzog]

How many miles have you ridfen during the 6-8 months? Any noteworthy bangs, crashes etc? I wouldn't ride on the wheels and would be paying a visit to my LBS.

 

[rusky]

Assuming you got it new, I would be straight back to the seller. There's no good reason they should fail that soon unless you've managed to do close on 10K miles in that time!

 

[festival]

Were are the cracks on the rim? are they on the spoke holes?
Anyhow, unless there is obvious signs of abuse you must return to the shop your bought it from and let them deal with it.
Sounds dangerous.

 

[Hicky]

I got my 2010 sirius wheelset changed by the bikeshop for free(Harry halls) because they went out of true 6 times in a month(normal use, my handbuilts have been trued once in 6months) also the cassette wobble wasnoticable through the pedals...ie very bad, I got RS10's which have been superb.....it took a some pestering as I wasnt happy but The shop were good about the whole thing.....I'd take it back.

 

[tyred]

Spokes were too tight imo.

 

[I like Skol]

Alex rims = made of cheese!

Had the exact same problem on my GT Hybrid after nearly 11 months and about 2000 miles. Wheels were replaced under warranty. The rear rim was failing around the spoke nipples on 3-4 places allowing the wheel to drift out of true, I only realised what was happening when I stopped to fix a punture and spotted the cracks.

Worryingly I have a second set of the exact same rims I bought for my wifes MTB. The Alex ACE 17 rim is sold as an MTB rim but in my case wasn't even man enough to withstand normal road use. Luckily my wife only rides her bike 5 or 6 times a year so is unlikely to suffer any similar problems.

Definitely take your bike back to the shop and insist on new wheels with a different (better) brand of rim.

 

[biggs682]

oh dear , i think i would be knocking on suppliers door and asking questions

 

[oldfatfool]

Heard a disquitening number of reports like this on Alexrims, especially when I have them on the tourer

 

[rusky]

I have Alexrims on on my hybrid & apart from a couple of broken spokes on the rear when it was new when the LBS re-laced it, they have been fine & are still true 3 years on.

 

[screenman]

Of course they were cheap as the whole bike is not expensive, I would say give the shop a chance. On a note for those saying get them to put different wheels on, it may be nice but also on fair that they are wheels of the same value.

 

[rusky]

When I had a freehub fail on a new bike (alex rims too!), the LBS tried to get a new freehub from the bike manufacturer but couldn't so the manufacturer replaced both wheels for RS10's

 

[I like Skol]

On a note for those saying get them to put different wheels on, it may be nice but also on[ly] fair that they are wheels of the same value.

Absolutely, my wheels were from the following years models so a different rim brand but I also had to suffer a front hub downgrade from Shimano to Formula :-(

 

[mickle]

Warranty. No question.

 

[rusky]

Bugger, bugger, bugger!

I've spent the entire day clearing out the garage only to notice that my commuter has a big split on both sides of the rim on a drive side spoke & another crack appearing on another spoke