Pacenti Warantee Experience

[Mr.Gib]

A question:
Has anyone with Pacenti SL23 rims with cracks at the spoke holes had a claim for replacement rejected? I am talking about rims with limited or no visible wear on the brake tracks, and no other signs of damage or abuse?

Curious to know your experience.

Thanks.
Gib.

[Multebear]

I'm pretty sure no one has been rejected. Everyone states, that Pacenti are very generous with the replacements. But let's se, if someone disagrees.

[Lugan]

I once lost a spacer to convert a Pacenti hub to proper MTB spacing. Lost it myself. Said as much to Pacenti, and he still sent me a free replacement via express mail. Good guy in my experience and makes great equipment.

[Asymptotic]

From my experience with a cracked rim Sl23 it is quite dependant who you got it from. Mine had been used for just over a year so I didn't get a free replacement, instead got a reasonable discount for a V2 rim. However, for the condition you described your rim to be in, you should get a free replacement V2 rim

[zed]

I have a box full of version 1 rims (12 of them) that came back cracked from the past few months that were all outside the 1 year warranty. No warranty coverage.

[KWalker]

Kirk replaced a few of mine that were cracked and gave me a few new ones. All of those were v1 and cracked.

I recently bought some v2s to rebuild after my last v1s cracked. Within a few rides the sleeve came loose in the front. It has now been 6 weeks and various excuses to finally find out there is no warranty. Being my only wheels I am f'ing pissed.

[Mr.Gib]

The loose sleeves can be fixed easily at home.

Remove rim strip. Find the seam and note the little stamping impressions that were supposed to secure the sleeve/joining shim.
Hammer in new depressions with a pointy device (I used a Phillips screwdriver). The best way to do this is place the rim over the edge of a table for support with a towel underneath to protect the rim. I have had the most success by choosing a new spot in the rim bed to dent just beyond the existing impressions. It takes a pretty good whack to make a dent that will hold the sleeve. Don't worry if you punch a small hole in the rim bed. If you do just go ahead and squeeze in a bit of silicone glue or epoxy.

Apparently sleeves are coming loose on many/most version two rims. I went through this repair process and a couple of weeks later the cracks started appearing at the spoke holes. So I am rebuilding with Hed. The whole situation is a mess with the loose sleeves and both versions cracking. If this were a major company there would be a complete recall. As it is I am not sure Pacenti could survive a recall, and I don't think he can afford to warranty them either hence the increase in rejections. One local store is seeing very high failure rates and expects that sooner or later all these rims will crack.

Shame. I like the rim and I like the guy.