Originally Posted by
zonatandem
How many miles on those Topolinos?
About 1,500 - 2,000 for the front & 2,000 - 2,500 tops for the rear. As noted, we've been using up to 5 different wheelsets on our Calfee since taking delivery in early 2008.
These are common failures on Topolino's as best as we can surmise from friends who were also early adopters but who quickly put big miles into their Topolino's. One of our dear friends described their experience this way:
We've never hit anything on the road with our Topo's. Five breaks total.
1. broke spoke on 22% climb, it pulled out where it passes thru the center hub.
2. broke front spoke at threads diving into a 90 degree left turn doing about 15 mph at Mel's flat smooth roads.
3. cracked rear hub on 38% climb.
4. broke rear spoke at threads just flying down a flat road (this also happened to our friends another time when they were behind us)
5. found numerous cracks on rim between spokes (this also happened to another friends).
All this being said.....I'm not a happy about our Topos', but Lar still loves them.....
So, hardly an anomaly for folks who put hard miles into their wheels. We would have had all of these issues a lot sooner had we not been playing around with two different sets of Rolfs and two difference sets of White Ind/Velocity Fusion & White Ind/Velocity Deep-Vs.
I still like Rafe, his passion for cycling, the composite wheel concept and love the ride qualities, but no way did we ever get value for money out of these wheels... and rebuilding them looks like a bad investment , i.e, throwing good money after bad is never a good idea.
Nice people can still be nice people, but if their products suck... they suck. $1,200 wheels shouldn't fall apart in just 2,000 - 3,000 miles of far less than demanding use.