Broken Lightweight standard gen 3 wheel - your take

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Geoff
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Location: Canada

by Geoff

+1. I would be surprised if that has anything at all to do with the braking. It does look like impact damage. It could even have been caused by the original shipping.

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kode54
Posts: 3754
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 9:39 pm

by kode54

Martin.F wrote:Lightweight discounted 50% on the brake track repair after seing the pads. Still not enough to be honest.


my lightweights delaminated the same way by the spokes. this was after hitting a pothole i couldn't avoid...and the impact made a dent on the rim. even after this...i rode home 35 miles safely.
upon further inspection, the dent on the outer rim was small...but there was a buckle on the brake track which was slightly deformed...thus, separating the two halves (split) when pressed. like yourself, i wasn't too pleased upon my estimate from lightweight.

i wouldn't buy another lightweight again. never had any issues with my Enves.
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Martin.F
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by Martin.F

"some of this issues can depend together.

The Delamination on the spoke and Rim was from an impact. Maybe our wheels very sensitive for this happening so it is possible that the brake surface got also an damage in this situation.

The discount is on goodwill base from our side"

So an impact cause the excess wear on the braketracks? Come on... Get off your high horse and stand behind your product. Admit there is something wrong with this particular wheel and fix it.

gitsome
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Location: nyc

by gitsome

I think that is outrageous for such an expensive (overpriced) item and he fact it cannot take normal use at such a high cost is a sign it is not well made and not well supported (structurally balanced and customer-service wise) I think LW should repair that free of charge considering what customers pay for the wheels. I would be totally pissed.
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Zigmeister
Posts: 938
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:09 pm

by Zigmeister

"Strong. Light. Cheap. Pick Two."

Keith Bontrager


Apparently, Lightweight went with Light/Cheap...

teufelhunden222
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:16 pm

by teufelhunden222

+1 for madfiber?
[img]<iframe%20height='160'%20width='300'%20frameborder='0'%20allowtransparency='true'%20scrolling='no'%20src='http://app.strava.com/athletes/1677950/activity-summary/ddf436fc1ca509b20d4637cfa80c928da771d2c6'></iframe>[/img]

sedluk
Posts: 412
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 3:10 am

by sedluk

I have enjoyed riding Lightweight wheels for several years. I have several bikes and several pairs of their wheels. I started with the Standard Gen III but now spend most of my time on the Obermayer wheels. I have some Ventoux wheels for windy days and occasionally ride my Fernweg wheels. I ride about 10-12,000 miles a year. I own some Madfiber & Zipp wheels and have owned Reynolds and Mavic.

I now weight about 165 lbs (75 Kg) but a while back weighed 85 kg.

I think every wheel has advantages and disadvantages. I few years ago the Lightweights were notably lighter than most of the competition. 1,100 grams for the Gen III and 975 for the Obermayer. That advantaged is much slimmer that it used to be. Zipp wheels weigh less than they use to and Reynolds has the RZR. The latest Madfiber wheel is 1,050.

Some people like that fact that you can replace spokes on many wheels, some riders even build their own wheels. The Lightweight spokes are very durable and I have found them to be vertically indestructible with normal riding. I can put 10,000 miles on a LW wheelset and it does not go out of true and the brake track still looks new. The wheelsets have a reputation for not being perfectly true when new. For some riders who like their brakepads 1mm off their wheel, the LW might not be a great choice. I have never had a problem with this. On the plus side the wheels are super stiff laterally when riding. If they are not touching the brakepads on the stand, they will not touch the brakepads when out of the saddle climbing.

I find that the brake tracks are very durable. But like most or all carbon wheels the braking is not nearly as good as a metal wheel when wet. I prefer cork pads and they suck when wet, but I like the way they brake when dry and I don’t spend much time riding in the rain. If I am riding in the rain I am extra careful. Obviously this combo would not be idea for someone living in Seattle.

The rims can chip if you hit a nasty pot hole. This is aggravated by low air pressure. I run my tires at 100 psi and it takes a pretty nasty hole to chip the rim but it has happened several times. I don’t think the LW wheels chip a lot more than other carbon wheels, but for sure not any less. I have a Gen IV that they claim is a little less prone to chipping, while I have not chipped them yet it is hard to tell how much more durable they are. I have never had a problem with hitting anything so hard that the spoke and rim separate. I would like to point out that if you do hit a pot hole so hard as to chip a rim, it will make a loud crack noise. It may sound like you just cracked the wheel in two, but when you look at the rim you most likely will have a hard time finding the crack or chip.

I really like the DT Swiss hubs, they are very durable and also very easy to service.

When I have a wheel that gets a chip in the rim, maybe something like once every 15,000 miles, most of the time you could still ride the wheel and probably not notice. But I send it in to LW and then repair it and it looks like new. The big expense is shipping. They ship them DHL with tracking and insurance. It is very expensive. I can ship the wheels USPS to LW for a reasonable cost. But the shipping from Germany to the US is very expensive. A while back I bought two wheelset from a seller in Germany. They checked around and received several quotes for shipping the wheels to me. I ended up paying 400 Euros to have the two sets of wheels shipped to me. I realized that not only was LW charging me a fair price for shipping, they have a special arrangement with DHL that most other people do not have.

It would really help if LW had a service center in North America but they don’t. For some the cost is a big deal, for others it is not. If you are on a tight cycling budget, then LW wheels are probably not for you.

kode54
Posts: 3754
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 9:39 pm

by kode54

good points sedluk.

in my case...i hit a big pothole. and being that it may, i still rode on it and it was true, despite the fact that the edge of the rim got chipped and one spoke was slightly attached with a split by the spoke. if i stopped to see what damage was done to the rim then, i probably would have turned around and got a ride home...but i was on a group ride...and kept going. i suppose the damage could have been worse...or even crashed if the wheel completely failed, which it didn't. so i am counting my lucky stars.
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sedluk
Posts: 412
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 3:10 am

by sedluk

The last time I chipped a LW was last year’s New York Grand Fondo. There was a section of road along the river that was a pot hole mine field. They had a sign that explained that it would be closing soon for resurfacing. A small group of us were chasing down a guy who had gotten away from us, we thought that we would let him dangle off the front and he would wear himself out. Turns out that we underestimated him. He ended up as one of the top 10 finishers on the hill climbing.

He was only 25 yards in front of us, some of the pot holes were several inches deep but the big problem was the road was partial shade and partial bright sun. You could not really make out all the holes. I was in front so I had a good view, I was calling out pot holes right and left and jumping over some. Then I hit one really hard, heard the loud crack and it bent my handlebar down. Soon afterward a friend hit another hole and he flatted. We did catch the guy and passed him and he was done, he was not even able to stay on our wheel. I am still not sure if I would chase him down given the same situation, probably would.

About two years ago I ended up with a stick poking a small hole in the front carbon hub body. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, somehow I ran over a branch, but they fixed it and I would not be able to tell you which wheel had the hole.

Earlier this spring I had a friend with a set of LW wheels hit a squirrel. The squirrel ran across the road and ran halfway through the front wheel. He was probably going at least 20 mph, my friend that is, the squirrel might have been going faster. The squirrel was lifted and was cut in half when it hit the fork, but not before breaking several spokes. My friend was amazed that he did not crash, he was able to ride home without any trouble but the wheel was done. He was happy that he was not injured and felt bad for the squirrel. He was impressed that the wheel was still relatively true but understood that it would not be repaired. He got a discount on a new front wheel and was happy. He ended up buying three more LW wheelsets.

This what a typical chip in the rim looks like. Also note that if you keep riding the brake pad will start to smear onto the brake surface. I did not do this one but it is typical of the ones I have had. Once they fix it you would have a hard time telling where it was.
Image

Geoff
Posts: 5395
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:25 am
Location: Canada

by Geoff

Squirrel inside the wheel?! :shock:

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