How no-warning carbon wheel failure wiped out top pro cycling coach

[wheelsONfire]

All you need is too high pressure to cause a stress fracture on a rim. Regarding LW, these have been recorded to crack easily from riding into potholes.

[Nefarious86]

If it's not KGT approved it's trash.

Because... reasons.

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[TobinHatesYou]

All you need is too high pressure to cause a stress fracture on a rim. Regarding LW, these have been recorded to crack easily from riding into potholes.

Lightweight Meilensteins are basically a two ply carbon skin over a dense EPS foam core...more or less what your helmet is made of. I love how they’ve been mentioned as a benchmark for quality/durability.

[mattr]

with no such failures (not that i ve seen or heard of)

Look and listen more carefully then I've seen a dozen or more cracked rims from CX (mostly the more rocky/high speed courses though) and a handful from road races.

Every broken carbon cx rim I’ve experienced or seen the aftermath of has been relatively benign, often without a flat tire.

Most of those i've seen have been relatively benign as well. Easy to ride out of, barring failures on rim brake bikes of course. It's usually the buckle that stops the ride.

The Danny Macaskill video is quite interesting from a ride to failure point of view. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfjjiHGuHoc

[Karvalo]

when using the term quality it is important to define what you mean otherwise the word becomes meaningless. In what way is a Bora a higher quality wheel than a roval. Then which each stat8 evidence is required otherwise its opinion.

Didn't you know, if something is made by Look/Time/Campagnolo/LW or any other elitist/heritage brand, then it's

a) beautiful according to objective taste and thus superior
b) far better quality than anything else

all by default

In this case, from what I've seen of rime finish inside and out, I'd agree that a Campagnolo Bora is better quality and/or quality control than Roval. Not because Roval is particularly below par though, just that Bora rims truly do appear to be exceptionally well made. I have absolutely no objective evidence to back that up though.

I have seen a couple of Rovals brought back for truing where it turned out a spoke had started to pull through the rim for no discernable reason, but I don't know what kind of abuse they had or hadn't suffered.

[jasjas]

Most of those i've seen have been relatively benign as well. Easy to ride out of, barring failures on rim brake bikes of course. It's usually the buckle that stops the ride.

Thats my point, these things just don't happen for no real reason and what i thought my original post implied

fwiw the thing i ve thought about is the carbon steer/fork interface, there must be some very significant forces acting on that area and failure doesnt bare thinking about.

[kgt]

To all my 'brilliant' followers:
There are articles, videos and photos from factory visits etc. that show where and how Campagnolo or Corima or LW wheels are made.
Find me one even one photo that shows where and how Roval wheels are made. Then we discuss.

[otoman]

haha, excellent point! That certainly is an interesting way to think about quality.

I'd throw Rolf Prima in the mix using that criteria.

[kgt]

Yes, Rolf is a good example too.
Comparing these high quality products to a product that no one knows where, how, and by whom it is made just tells a lot about how marketing works nowadays. Nobody actually cares about quality, brand loyalty is all there is.

[spdntrxi]

my guess would be someone like Merida making wheels for Spesh.

[boots2000]

Last fall I spotted a crack on one of my Roval wheels.
CLX32 disc rear wheel- crack was at one of the spokke holes.
I weigh 65-66kg most days- so not heavy. And it was JRA to the best I can tell.
Perhaps it was a crack of this sort that propagated into a wheel failure?

I warranteed my wheel- No questions asked by Specialized.

[commendatore]

haha, excellent point! That certainly is an interesting way to think about quality.

I'd throw Rolf Prima in the mix using that criteria.

The interactions I’ve had with Rolf suggest they have very little to do with the design of “their” rims.

[TobinHatesYou]

The interactions I’ve had with Rolf suggest they have very little to do with the design of “their” rims.

So you think this is faked like the moon landing and Froome's crash? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdvziTmHtZo

[sethjs]

fwiw I probably have 7000 miles on Rovals. 3k on CLX 50 disc on a Venge. 2k on CLX 32 disc on a Diverge (they get the crap beaten out of them). 2k on rim brake CLX 50s.

I've broken one once - was the CLX 32 front - ironically on a Specialized sponsored ride (Sagan / Tahoe Gravel Gran Fondo) on the 2 mile rock garden climb. I heard the crack. Didn't realize I'd broken the rim. Did the rest of the ride. Probably did 2-3 additional rides. Then noticed the *inside* of the rim near a spoke had buckled in. No visible damage at the rim's edge from a strike at all. Specialized warrantied the wheel. Mind you - this was a rock garden climb on a bike with effectively no suspension and I had on 38c tires. And the tire didn't even flat when it happened.

In general - I've done tons of fast gravel descents, very rocky high power (for me...300 watt) climbs like Eldridge Grade for those who know it.

Net: they're generally reliable wheels. But of course, any given rim with a QC issue can break.

Oh, one rant - the hubs over a few wet rides get noisy because the end caps let in a bunch of grime / sand that starts making a screeching sound between the end cap and the bearing seal.