Had to have these HEAVY Wheels! Just for the look! PROBLEM!

[Hbrown]

Just looking at these wheels on Ebay, I knew they were not any where close to WW status. BUT, Like a car accident or a beautiful woman I couldn't stop looking.

I found myself looking at them at least once a day. I started trying to find out anything that I could on them. I started picturing them on a new project bike that I was building. I became obsessed!

The rear wheel weighed as much as my set of Madfibers! Actually more! Now throw in the front and you are talking Boat anchor!

Regardless I was hooked! I pulled the trigger and bought them. Waited on pins and needles, checking the tracking status twice a day, Till that glorious day when the doorbell rang and there before me was my UPS guy, with a brown wheel box that looked like it was glowing , with a sound of a choir somehow eminating from it!

I opened the box, (more like tore it apart), removed the front wheel, unwrapped it, screamed! Beautiful! Marveled at the 3k weave, the 5 blades, the clincher surfaces, the brake tracks and so on. Spun it, looked good, slight wobble, but not a deal breaker. Gingerly laid it down, amd removed the rear.

It was HEAVY! Buy our standards, no, it was heavy by anybody's standards! But it was BEAUTIFUL! It spun perfectly straight, buttery smooth, nice ratchet sound, Just GORGOUS! (I can't spell) .

I mounted up my Vittoria open corsa's, (that was hard) , installed my cassette, and mounted them on my new project. Stood back, and screamed, DAMN! I swooned, felt a little weak in my knees, sat down and just stared! This was the most beautiful bike that I have ever built!

It came in totally built with water bottles, out the door rideable at 17.3lbs. the heaviest bike that I have ever built!

But to me, perfection!

Now, nothing is ever perfect, right? You expect a new bike to have bugs and adjustments, right? Takes maybe 3 rides to get everything right, and working as it should, Right? It road like the brakes were on!

Where I normally would be doing 22mph, I was doing 19. The bike felt great! Just slow.

[Hbrown]

For days I would check out everything. I opened up my brakes more, re waxed my chain, checked my chain line, made sure that I was not changing my riding position. Everything was checked! Over and over!

I spun the wheels, bearings felt fine, wheel's spun for a few minutes, maybe a minute and a half on the rear, Then it hit me! These are Novatec hubs! I remember seeing posts about people trying to find out if they are good or bad. People reporting problems with them, and how bad the bearings are. I pulled the rear wheel, took it apart, (Novatec hubs come apart very ez) and checked the hubs. Not bad. Everything is pretty beefy, solidly built. Found a broken o ring on the non drive side.but did not replace it. Figured that was the squeek that I was hearing, greased up the seal, put it all back together, remounted the wheel back on the bike. Spun the wheels, they were spinning long and happilly, and went to bed.

Pumped up the tires for my morning ride. A swig of water, and i'm off. Squeek sqeek sqeek, you get the picture. it stops, jump off the bike and spin the wheel, spins maybe once, spin it again, one revolution! do a quick ride home. Worst times ever!

I get home tear appart the rear hub, and guess what I see!? NOTHING! It all looks fine! What the heck is going on? Put it back together, and it again spins happilly and for a nice long time!

I go out for a quick ride, squeek sqeek sqeek, stops! spin the wheels, maybe one revolution at most! Pushing hard on the pedals I make it home! Now I am pissed! Beautiful bike! Beautiful wheels! But aint worth riding!

Tear appart the rear hub, Nothing looks bad! Put it back together, spins beautifly! AUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

I calm down! come back an hour later, spin the wheels and they are fine. Nothing is wrong with them! WHAT THE HECK IS IT? And WHY ME!

Just for laughs I take the rear hub apart again, everything is as it should be. Nothing looks wrong! What the #$@%%$ is wrong!!!?? I decide to spin the bearings, they spin ok, but they all have a metal on metal sound, you can hear the balls clicking against each other. Wait , these are cheap steel on steel bearings, I knew this when I bought the wheels, I figured I would change them out later to ceramic. But, I grab a needle and lift out one of the seals.

OMG!!!!! They are as dry as a bone! There is no grease whatsoever in them!!!! Metal expands when it gets hot! steel bearings rubbing against each other in a steel race will get hot and expand! NO LUBRICANT to decrease friction! Which creates friction, and being steel WEAR! When I rode the bearings would get hot and expand, slowing me down just like I had the brakes on! When I got home the bearings would cool down and go back to their regular size, and just spiining the wheel would not create that much friction. MY Problem solved!

I greased all of the bearings! My times are actually up over normal on the flats. And I am happy with my heavy 60mm, 23mm wide, 5 spoke ,Ebay, boat anchors!

They could be lighter!!!!!

[martinko]

Okay. And when you cool down, come back and tell us what is the point

[justkeepedaling]

Great story. 10/10 would read again.

Basically grease your bearings. Got it

[NilesCrane]

So, where's the picture of the beauties?

[wingguy]

After the first post I was going to go with "This thread is worthless without pictures".

After the second, I'm going to remove the "without pictures" part.

[Norregard]

Yeah, this thread is in dire need of some pictures!

[Frankie - B]

'like'

[F45]

lol, 1130/wheel. But fun. Like carnal knowledge with fat chick. Except you broke the rule of silence!

[Butcher]

So, I'm puzzled. You are complaining about these heavy wheels, then you add more weight to them by adding grease?

You are obsessed with them aren't you.

[shoemakerpom2010]

That reminds me of the time I bought Spin rims for my mountain bike (Super V 2000) when they first came out. The excitement kind of died for me when my shoulder blades felt like they would rattle off cause of the stiffness....Sold them and went back to spokes....

[ms6073]

Sounds like the OP is describing his experiences with Yoleo's 65mm, 5 Spoke carbon aero wheel as seen in this video.
I like the design and it seems like those could be made a lot lighter but wheels like this always remind me of the Xentis aero wheels Jan Ullrich used. I seem to recall a lot of comments about this after the first time he road them in competition with no markings of note on the wheels, such that the mechanic apparently mistakenly flipped the front wheel so that the aero profile of the blades was oriented in wrong direction! Shortly afterwards, Xentis added decals that depicted wind flow to avoid such confusion.

[Kayrehn]

That looks fascinating, like the turbines inside a wind tunnel...

[bombertodd]

Sounds like the OP is describing his experiences with Yoleo's 65mm, 5 Spoke carbon aero wheel as seen in this video.
I like the design and it seems like those could be made a lot lighter but wheels like this always remind me of the Xentis aero wheels Jan Ullrich used. I seem to recall a lot of comments about this after the first time he road them in competition with no markings of note on the wheels, such that the mechanic apparently mistakenly flipped the front wheel so that the aero profile of the blades was oriented in wrong direction! Shortly afterwards, Xentis added decals that depicted wind flow to avoid such confusion.

I want to know what truing stand that is in the video. It looks nice!

[tantra]

I wonder what they ride like.