General Cycling Discussion - Are Spinergy Wheels Safe?

Here was an interesting website I came across, asking if Spinergy Wheels are safe....I was contemplating a set myself at one stage, but I'm thankful I decided to go for regular spokes instead.

Check it out

http://home.interlynx.net/~pjdu/

Rich

Spinnergy used to use tensioned blades of carbon fibre for the spokes, and pinned them together at the crossover, creating a structural weakness. Once a crack developed, the brittle material would quickly become overloaded and fail catastrophically.
Their current spoks have changed from carbon/resin to PBO fibres, which are much stronger and less brittle than carbon. The cheaper wheels have even reverted to go old steel spokes. The failure characteristics should be much more forgiving.

That website put me off ever buying any rims that have even the slighest bit of carbon fiber in them. Damn some of those accidents were bad. Thanks for the website.
Stew:crash:

The Spinergy SPOX are very dangerous. I had a pair for 2 years and broke 6 spokes (4 rear and 2 front). I weigh 165. The most dangerous thing is breaking a front spoke. The spoke can wrap around the fork and lock up the wheel pitching you over the bars. I was lucky that it didn't happen to me. I got rid of them and built up a set of traditional wheels. Buy and ride at your own risk.

I recently had a pair of Spin composite wheels, and bought them over the Spinergy wheels pretty much for the view that they looked alot stronger.

I've since gone back to traditional spoked wheels for weight saving.

Rich

p.s. I think that website is enough to put anyone off :(

Spinergy no longer makes the Rev-X.
The PBO Spinergy wheels are safe.

I rode thousands of HARD miles on a set of Spinergy Spox wheels. I broke one spoke and replaced both rims (general wear and tear). If you had problems with these they weren't maintained properly ... tensioning the spokes is a pain in the arse.

woah.....thanks for the site...i was about to buy a pair of wheelsets from them......thanks again.....I feel sorry for the people who got injured....

The Revx style wheel was a piece of crap. After reading the web site I am still confident about my Spox wheels (now retired) ... they served me well with little maintenance.

Uh, the Rev X is one of the fastest wheels you can buy. They stopped making it because it is too expensive to manufacture.
If you think they are crappy, you are in the minority because they go fast on ebay and no one can keep them in stock.

I don't think they are ... I know it. I've seen them break and read the web site linked above. In addition, they are heavy and must be sent to the manufacturer for service ... if they still service them.

One other thing ... people buy them because they look cool.

Reduced-spoke wheels may be great for big-budget racers, but they make no sense for commuters, century riders, and recreational cyclists, who will happily sacrifice a minuscule performance enhancement in favor of greatly superior safety, repairability, economy, and reliability.

Well, we should all be glad that now Spinergy wheels are safe.

How about other wheels that do not use carbon fibre for the spokes but the rims? I guess that if carbon fibre would fail on the spokes, it should do so too at the rims, and that the failure at the rims would be more dangerous, agree anyone?

Also, what is the least spoke count so that even if a single spoke fail, the wheel will still run?

Aerospoke makes some bombproof 5-spoke wheels. They use a full Aeroheat and Aerohead rims, that add tremendous strength. But you trade lightness for strength and true wheels.

www.aerospoke.com

Rev X are not intended as touring or any other type of wheel. They are just really fast racing wheels. Some people may buy alot of things because they look cool. The Rev X's perform- cool or not.
If you are looking for durability and long term reliability, look elsewhere. These are like F1 cars- they burn 10x as bright but only 1/2 as long. That's not good or bad, that's just the way it is with alot of racing stuff.

This is a not a "low spoke count" wheel. It is a carbon wheel with 8 carbon blades. LSC wheels use spokes. Like DA wheels with 16 spokes (which are also great wheels). Or Ksyriums which rival the Rev X for stiffness and ZIPPs or Palmeros or Antera, Corima...there are tons of great LSC wheels. Many that are just as durable and perform better overall than a typical 32 spoke with Open Pro hoops (which is also a great wheel).

These are all racing wheels. No one says "use them for commuting/touring/whatever". Who would be riding around on carbon Zipps or Rev X's for commuting? All those wheels are racing-specific. All other concerns are unimportant for these wheels.

Fair point Racer,

As with everything in life, nothing lasts forever :( Still, the advice to check your equipment regularly, whatever it may be, is a good rule of thumb.

Take it easy out there!

Rich

Whatever else is right or wrong with Spinergy wheels, the current generation of hubs have axle breakage and axle-end creeping problems; too bad because they finally have some non-junk wheels--just not as good as Campy/Shimano/whatever hubs, butted Wheelsmith spokes and regular rims!

The point about the Revx wheels being racing wheels is moot. As many of us have argued in recent threads, the majority of this equipment is purchased by (and this is being generous) novice riders who fail to properly maintain their equipment. When this type of Spinergy wheel was popular I saw far more of them on the street then on the trail or racecourse. I'm not trying to be a jerk racer ... just argumentative.

Rev X are not intended as touring or any other type of wheel
RacerX,
all of the incidents on that particular web site are
race type incidents (or at least from what I could
tell). No indication that these were commuters/recreational
riders.
Personally I think the design was flawed, at least with
the earlier design REVX wheels. Note that in almost
all the incidents the wheels were purchase prior to 1999.

Just my $.02
Marty

I've seen alot of stuff break in races.
I don't know about '99 Rev X wheels. I have raced on '01 and '00 wheels and they are awesome.
If I could get my hands on the '02, I would buy them in a heartbeat but they are so hard to come by as they all got snapped up- even for sponsor deals.