Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - iro wheel warranty question

i just stripped the hub on my iro-built rear. does anyone here have any experience with iro's warranty process for stripped hubs?

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yeah, you should call Tony directly. He's a great guy.

i emailed. but, yeah, i should call them. youre right.

IRO can't possibly warranty stripping a hub can they? That would be absurdly nice of him.

was it your fault? what kind of cog/lockring?

lockring/cog=DA/DA.
i dont know what happened. it slipped once on my way home. when i got home, i tightened it the lockring. since its a pretty new wheel, i figured it was just the cog wasnt tight enough. went and got food, no problems. today, leaving my house, slipped again. that started to bother me. that and all the metal shavings coming off of it. tried it one more time, after disassembly and inspsection, just for kicks. then i emailed tony. i dont know if it was my fault, or just a crappy hub, or what. but im out one rear wheel. i wont hold it against them if they dont warranty it, but maybe theres just something wrong with the hub. maybe im just an idiot.

it was your fault. improper initial installation.

maybe you should look at it first...

you're right, to be certain one would have to look at it. there are occasional hub defects. but, hubs strip 95% of the time due to improper cog/lockring installs.

yeah. im totally ready to accept it being my fault, but i just dont really think it was. ive had the wheels for almost a month, and up till yesterday there were no problems at all. i dont know how i could have screwed up the installation (screw on cog, screw on lockring), but there are more things in heaven in earth, i suppose. im as surprised as anyone else this happened, but im pretty sure i did everything right. of course, i will abide by tony's decision, either way.

yeah. im totally ready to accept it being my fault, but i just dont really think it was. ive had the wheels for almost a month, and up till yesterday there were no problems at all. i dont know how i could have screwed up the installation (screw on cog, screw on lockring), but there are more things in heaven in earth, i suppose. im as surprised as anyone else this happened, but im pretty sure i did everything right. of course, i will abide by tony's decision, either way.

i'm not gonna jump on your like that legalize_it, but if you put a lot backpressure on the drivetrain, the the cog and lockring weren't as snug as can be, that could have caused the stripping.

tony will probably ask you to mail the hub and lockring to him, and he'll determine whether or not it's covered. kind of inconvenient, but worth it, if you're covered.

can this be a good time to re-iterate proper cog installation? grease threads, screw on, firmly and evenly apply some rotafixing pressure, screw on lockring. go for a ride and crank up some hills, but do not apply any backpressure--rely entirely on handbrake. re-tighten lockring. enjoy.

i'm not gonna jump on your like that legalize_it, but if you put a lot backpressure on the drivetrain, the the cog and lockring weren't as snug as can be, that could have caused the stripping.

tony will probably ask you to mail the hub and lockring to him, and he'll determine whether or not it's covered. kind of inconvenient, but worth it, if you're covered.

can this be a good time to re-iterate proper cog installation? grease threads, screw on, firmly and evenly apply some rotafixing pressure, screw on lockring. go for a ride and crank up some hills, but do not apply any backpressure--rely entirely on handbrake. re-tighten lockring. enjoy.

Yep, I think it can. Cogs should never move, and if you're new to fixed riding and/or bicycles in general, you don't know any of the stuff like this by "feel." There don't seem to be as many "I stripped my hub" posts lately, but I think there's just a lot more threads about BFs members meeting or photoshopping things.

I'm not an authority on tightening cogs, but since I've taken to the rotafix, I haven't either had the slightest cog movement on either of two bikes, nor have I ever been able to move my lockring in further, and I'm a heavy rider (225 in my union suit) that can generate a lot of power. I think having a proper lockring wrench helps - it was way easier to tighten the one on my new wheel with the Hozan one I now have, rather than the generic adjustable one that came with my $40 tool kit.

http://204.73.203.34/fisso/eng/schpignone.htm

Fwiw, Tony may have replacement hub bodies available as well.

From what it looks like when you posted, you only tightened the lockring and not both the cog first and then the lockring? If there is still slack in the cog when you crank down the lockring, the cog will still slide around. Just a thought.

i rode around to tighten the cog, then tightened down the lockring with my lockring tool.
i dunno. this is frustrating. i guess i must have ****ed up somewhere. im just pissed as hell that my bike isnt working, and thinking its my fault is even more annoying. most things i can fix, but a stripped hub is a stripped hub, for whatever reason. i kind of tapped myself out buying the wheelset, too.

i rode around to tighten the cog, then tightened down the lockring with my lockring tool.
i dunno. this is frustrating. i guess i must have ****ed up somewhere. im just pissed as hell that my bike isnt working, and thinking its my fault is even more annoying. most things i can fix, but a stripped hub is a stripped hub, for whatever reason. i kind of tapped myself out buying the wheelset, too.

don't worry, you're not ****ed. mail it to tony, see if it falls under the warranty.

IF it doesn't, you can always still use the wheel. i'm guessing it's fixed/free. you can always jb weld or red loctite yourself a "suicide hub," if you're willing to weight the risks involved and do it right. or you can try to sell it to somebody who wants a single speed wheel, and get some money to work up to that $100-wheel. or you can buy a suzue basic and rebuild the wheel yourself, using the rim, old spokes and nipples, and the wheelbuilding guide on sheldon brown's webpage.

yeah. thanks. i needed a little optimism. its been a frustrating week, and this whole fiasco only added to it.
im sending it to tony as soon as i can. we shall see.
what are the chances of actually being able to use my old spokes? iro/suzue have the same flange and all that?

yeah, they have the same flange.

i rode around to tighten the cog, then tightened down the lockring with my lockring tool.
i dunno. this is frustrating. i guess i must have ****ed up somewhere. im just pissed as hell that my bike isnt working, and thinking its my fault is even more annoying. most things i can fix, but a stripped hub is a stripped hub, for whatever reason. i kind of tapped myself out buying the wheelset, too.

You haven't said what kind of sprocket it is...cheapo track sprockets often wreck nice hubs. The problem is that they don't have enough threading, and some of them are just too thin.

If you use a sprocket that is too thin, you will think you are tightening the lockring, but actually the lockring will just be running out of threads at the end of the lockring thread "step" and the sprocket will still be able to move back and forth.

If the sprocket moves back and forth as you go from forward pedaling to resisting and back again, it will definitely strip any aluminum hub.

That's why I stopped selling cheapo sprockets.

Sheldon "Cheap Sprockets Suck" Brown

+--------------------------------------------+
| All the world's a stage and most of us |
| are desperately unrehearsed. |
| --Sean O'Casey |
+--------------------------------------------+

Not that I would ever step on Sheldon's toes, but OP did say DA/DA cog/lockring.

whatever happened to the problem with the EAI cogs that weren't threaded quite right. something about that on the harriscyclery page a while back.

yep. dura ace all around. nothing but the best here.

i'm not sure if this is pertinent, but the threading on my IRO formula rear hub's axle was a little off. None of the aftermarket 10x1 axle nuts with at my LBS would go on easily. A set of track nuts ended up working remarkably well. The ends of the axles weren't damaged.

as a side note, I noticed that it took more effort than I expected to put my shimano ug-73 bb into the bb shell. i must have removed it 5 times thinking i had begun to cross thread it, but it was just a really firm fit.

i guess my point is that perhaps the manufacturing tolerances of formula hubs seem to jive better with specific parts. no problems with my phil cog and formula lockring as of yet.

has anyone else noticed problems with DA and formula? i guess if it was a significant problem, someone would have mentioned it already.

edit: one more thing. is it possible to overtighten a lockring? could that cause any problems?

whenever i've touched my formula lockring, it's been with hozan pliers. because there seems to be a great deal of variation between different lockring tools, and because formulas are known to strip at the notches, i wouldn't use anything else.

i'm runnin' a DA cog and lockring without issue on a formula hub, as are a few other folks i ride with. i doubt its an incompatibility issue. good luck on gettin' a replacement! if you can't get a replacement feel free to pm me, i could use it for a singlespeed build...

has anyone else noticed problems with DA and formula? i guess if it was a significant problem, someone would have mentioned it already.

edit: one more thing. is it possible to overtighten a lockring? could that cause any problems?

I stripped a formula hub with a soma cog and da lockring. Totally stripped the cog threads. Pretty sure I didn't tighten the cog enough; the lockring was definitely on tight enough, as it gouged the cog when I stripped it.

Now running Kogswell with Da/Da with nary a budge.

I let you know how the wheel warranty works. I understand s**t happens. I also know that 99.9% of striped hub is user related. But I am also in tune with the fixie community. So there is a good chance that the hub body will be replaced not because it's defective but because you need the wheel for your bike. Why IRO CYCLE asks for the hub,cog,lockring is so I can see what parts you are using and where things went amuck.

hey! the man himself. thanks for posting tony.
i really appreciate the fact that you would look at the hub for me. its above and beyond, and why iro is looked on so fondly on BF.

i stripped the freewheel side of my iro wheelset by not knowing what i was doing when i put it on. good thing that side doesn't even matter.