I don't usually go out like this but I feel that I must tell the cycling community about recent experience this year with Lightweight wheels. Not good.

Both my Brother In Law and I bought a set ($6k) of Lightweight Standard wheels. We bought them 4th of July weekend 2011. These are carbon clinchers. We bought them from a high end shop in Massachusetts.

I rode my Lightweights in the Levi's Gran Fondo in Oct in Santa Rosa. Hilly with fast decents. The front wheel warped from the heat. Shop I purchased them from wouldn't admit it was a wheel issue. Said it was my fault. I braked too much.
But he convinced the North American rep to get me another wheel. IT TOOK 3+ Months of me hounding him and I finally got the wheel.

My brother in law lives in Florida. BOTH of his went out of true. He had a local shop who knew the rep contact them. Oh, our shop in Mass that we bought them from, told him that although they may be a bit out of true but he "could still ride them". This is a $6k set of wheels that aren't even a year old! This guy rides in Florida on smooth roads. He weighs about 160.

Anyway, the shop in Clearwater sent them to Lightweight and the Lightweight rep told her that they would send a new set to replace these.

That was two months ago. Still no wheels.

What is unfortunate is that we were both so excited about our new wheels. Now it seems to be a bit of a challenge to keep them on the road.

Sorry to hear that. Did you purchase the extended warranty?
There's a big thread about Lightweight clinchers here - http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=100549
Lightweight themselves have commented in it. It might be worth putting you post in that thread.

If you're talking about the dealer in MA that I'm thinking of they are an absolute nightmare and have yet to hear a positive story about them

great on fit.

challenged with customer service.

they are in Concord, MA.

same one?

That would be the one

I presume this is the place viewtopic.php?f=3&t=101535&p=863944#p863944

Sorry to hear about the wheels and the customer service. Levi's fondo has a no carbon clincher rule because of the descents. Glad to didn't get hurt.

You are getting a new set of wheels though, so it's not like it couldn't be worse.

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RUEGAMER 5.21kg, 11.48lbs

CRUMPTON 4.40kg, 9.70lbs

Is this the tmanley rule viewtopic.php?f=3&t=63507 ? Or perhaps, many such occurrences?

well obviously I would never ride that again with any brand carbon clincher.

But the CS from Lightweight is a big issue.

My Brother In Law bought his set same day and they are both out of true. He rides in Florida on flat roads and he is about 165 lbs.

Can't get a response from Lightweight on a wheelset that's not even a year old.

On the contrary, I had and issue with my rear 65 wheel from ENVE (spokes kept loosening, 8 on one ride) and ENVE sent me a new wheel within a week and said that there must have been a manufacturing issue on that one wheel.

I own several sets of Lightweight tubular wheels and none of them are perfectly true. They are handmade and somehow they bond the rim, spokes and hub together all at the same time under tension. They have a spec for trueness; I don’t know what it is but something like true within 1 or 2 mm.

I am amazed at how they stay true even after thousands of miles and lots of potholes.

So in my experience, they are not perfectly true out of the box but stay the same trueness for years and years.

I know of only one case where a Lightweight wheel came out of true. I was riding with a group and someone hits a pot hole with such force that we thought someone broke a frame. It was a huge pothole and everyone was pointing it out. But somehow this guy hits it. There was a loud crack noise and then this guy pulls over and finds that he has a pinch flat on his rear Obermayer tubular.

Sometime later I hear that he is at the dealer complaining that his wheel is not true and that he spent $6k+ dollars and this is unacceptable. He claims that he has never hit even a small pothole. The wheelset was less than one year old and they fixed it at no charge. Somehow they must re-tension and re-bond the wheel back together. I think it took at least a month. He called just about every day to find out if it was back. I offered to buy them and he would not even discuss it. Go figure.

To make matters worse, this guy likes to have his brakes pads very close to his rim. He just likes it this way. His mechanic explains to him that he is using a brake with a cam and that for proper braking the pads should start out further from the rim. That way the brakes are in a better part of the power curve when braking. He does not want to hear any of this. He just wants to touch the brakes and start braking.

The thing that I thought was interesting was that this guy always likes to throw around how much he paid and how much service he should get. He is always bringing up $6k+ and using the word unacceptable.

Now your situation may be much different and you may not be a dentist with lots of demands whenever you buy anything. But I can see how you would not want to come across as one of these guys. So probably better to just explain to the dealer the problem without the “I paid xxx and expect xxx” stuff.