My Felt SR-91 has Alex-da22 rims, some ? black spokes, and Felt hubs. I've gone through two front wheels already. The first time I had a problem I was riding down the road and pulled onto the sidewalk to wait for my friends then continued on the sidewalk and ka-plow the wheel explodes and I go flying. Half the spokes were out. I banged up my knee and my elbow but not too bad but my bike obviously got scratched up and had to re-position the derailleur. My lbs said he'd talk to felt about it and in the meantime he pulled another alex-da22 replacement wheel off a bike that was missing some parts and put it on for me to have and figured when he got a replacement from felt he would just put it back on that other bike.
So I'm riding a few days ago and the same exact thing happens. Only I'm going a bit faster 'cause I was by myself so this time I landed on my head. Luckily I had my friends chrome bag on and it swung around and cushioned my head and helmet but my chin got ripped up a bit and even though I had gloves on my hand got a little messed up. The shop had never seen anything like this happen and we've all had ideas of what the problem is. I think maybe it's some cheap ass spokes. I've done some searching and I'm not the only one who had spoke or rim issues with the alex-da22 either though.
Has anyone else here had problems with these or similar wheels using the alex-da22 rim?
Here's a pick of the first wheel that exploded.
The BikeForums Team
-adv-
This is an archived thread, you can find the full version of this thread, with images, links and more content here.
Seems very out of the ordinary, perhaps its how you ride. Road wheels are fragile compared to MtB wheels, if that is what you are used to.
I'll be interested to see what others have to say, but you are accident prone, it may be karma?
larue
no I don't believe that I ride very "hard." I usually stay on the road and rarely use the sidewalk and only for short distances at that (yes sidwalk riding is legal here.) I don't do anything crazy on my bike and I only bunnyhopped a total of 4 times with the first wheel, zero on the next. I weigh in at 190 so I though maybe it was weight but everyone has told me that shouldn't be an issue.
vincenzosi
Jesus that's scary! That's not just a spoke, that's like a catastrophic failure. Have either you or the LBS called Alex?
Ed Holland
Wow! It is hard to tell from your picture, but it seems as if the failure is either the spoke nipples, certinly, some of the spoke nipples appear to have lost their heads. Alternatively, the rim or eyelets gave way and failed to hold the spoke nipples. Either way it seems like a serious manufacturing fault. It appears to be a radially laced wheel - but I'm not sure how this would affect the required spoke tension (higher or lower) in comparison to what the rim could stand - for a bunch of spoke to "detach" like this suggests that the configuration is on the edge of failure, and removing one element (spoke) from the structure tips the whole lot over the edge, so to speak.
I'd be interested to know exactly which parts broke - is the rim itself damaged or is it a spoke/nipple problem?
I certainly would not want to ride a wheel like this, especially after two failures... I would be asking for an alternative.
Cheers and good luck
Ed
vincenzosi
My theory: the rim was spun too tight with too much tension on the spokes. One breaks and the nipple breaks off, and sets off a chain reaction.
Just my theory. I could be completely wrong (and have been in the past), but this just ain't normal. As I said previously, I'd be very curious to know what Alex has to say after seeing that photo of their rim being utterly obliterated.
Ed Holland
Yup, that is kind of what I was driving (cycling?) at, in my own garbled way :beer:
vincenzosi
Heh... I'm gonna check out my Alex rims when I get home.
You never know :-)
AndrewP
It doesnt look like any spokes are broken, just the nipples or the rim. Is there any sign of cracks around the holes in the rim of the back wheel. Have you had the spoke tension measured with a tensiometer in both front and rear wheels. Are these aluminum nipples? This may be from a batch that was heat treated badly - there was a period when Mavic was reported to be showing a lot of cracks around the spoke holes (I'm not sure of the models)
Ebbtide
I wonder if the shop "tunes" the wheels after they come in? I only mention that as I have seen two reports of bad wheels from that shop, and none from Felt/Alex.
larue
thanks for all the feedback. no the rim appeared to be fine in each case afterward. not sure if the shop tuned the wheels or not. vincenzoi's theory makes sense, I'll have to wait and hear what Felt say's after they inspect the wheel, I think I'll email the photo and info to Alex as well.
No I'm not comfortable riding these wheels any longer. Felt is definitely sending a replacement, but only if they find a defect will they upgrade the wheels at no cost to me. My LBS said he may even be able to get the whole bike replaced as the damage done to it in the crashes were not my fault but the defective wheels. I doubt that will happen but it sure would make my day.
I am getting a bunch of free felt crap (shirt etc,) not sure how I feel about that.
vincenzosi
Well Larue, there's always ebay :-)
larue
Well Larue, there's always ebay :-)
lol.
I may even be ebaying the bike in the future, depending on how this is resolved.
larue
I emailed Felt and Alex with pictures and info. I'll post any replies I receive.
vincenzosi
Hey Larue...
Heard anything on this yet?
larue
Well I emailed Felt and got a response from a Rob there, he asked me to call him and told me he'd like to get me on a different set of wheels. He was working on that Friday, I hope to find out more today. My LBS was supposed to contact him for an update since he said he would send the wheels to them for installation.
So far so good, I'd be content with upgraded wheels.
Also I have not heard back from Alexrims.
vincenzosi
I don't blame you.
I showed the pic to a friend, and he's under the impression that the wheel was overtightened and a nipple sheared off and caused a chain reaction. Needless to say, the pictures shocked the hell out of him and he was trying to figure out something he had never seen the likes of before.
clausen
My lbs said he'd talk to felt about it and in the meantime he pulled another alex-da22 replacement wheel off a bike that was missing some parts and put it on for me to have and figured when he got a replacement from felt he would just put it back on that other bike.
Sound like the rims were never properly trude. I had a rim that needed to be straightened after every ride even after paying to have it trude twice. Brought it to another shop finally and have put over 1000km on it and it's still straight as a arrow with out any adjustment. Mechanics have there good days and bad days. there are also good mechanics and people who own wrenchs
FOG
Try contacting the Consumer Products Safety Commission http://www.cpsc.gov/
larue
Thank you FOG, I have done so.
larue
I apologize but there was a mistake, not having the wheel with me I looked online for what wheelsets came with my bike. I was looking at an '05 model which does carry the da2, but the '04s were equipped with at450's from alexrims. I apologize for the mistake.
vincenzosi
FUnny but my bike has the at450's factory stock. I definitely think whoever built your wheel did it because my rims aren't the slightest bit out of true and I weigh a heck of a lot more than you do and probably ride on much worse terrain (the streets of NYC are not a cozy place for a road bike).
Can't wait to hear how this gets resolved. I was curious before, but now I'm downright panicky :D
larue
update.
never got the freebies Felt promised, but did get the da22 to replace the at450's.
CPSC contacted me and I just got through meeting with the person who is handling my "case." He took photos of the bike and such and went over everything with me again. When I sent in the accident info I had no idea I was going to get a case but if it helps them find a potential problem then I don't mind.
One thing I've noticed is that on the at450 the spoke is surrounded by a piece of metal and the new one there is no metal just the spoke inside the rim. Maybe the at450s have a weaker build?
Oh well I guess that's it. I'm not too happy with Felt now though, they said they would send goodies to make up for the problem and they didn't and the wheel they sent while being an upgrade is not much of one, it's what my same bike would come with if I bought an '05 instead of the '04. Obviously it seems to me they changed rims this year for a reason though.
vincenzosi
Jeez... Well, at least you got it resolved in some way.
I have the AT450's on my rig and I kinda like them... No problems yet, but I haven't had it long enough to notice them, I don't think. Guess I know what to look out for now ;)
Let me know what you think of the DA22's...
larue
well after two failures I never want to ride that wheel again. I pay for a bike, have two wheels bust on me, **** up my bike in the process, yeah I believe they owe me something along the lines of an upgrade. they should replace the bike in my lbs's opinion and I wouldn't have minded that either. They promised me other thngs for my "troubles" and I got nothing.
bandaidman
i had problems with the alex wheel set that came on my 2003 felt sr-81...i had repeated spoke failures, but nothing like this
i got a nice set of mavic wheels to replace mine (my lbs got them for me...they have since dropped felt secondary to problems with the company)
larue
what sort of problems have they had with Felt bandaidman?
2manybikes
I have DA 22's that came stock on my Fuji track bike. The LBS sells them on other Fuji models too. I have about 3,000 miles on the track bike. I'm not riding fixed much, mostly with a freewheel. Im not too hard on the wheels either. I work part time at that shop. no DA 22 problems that I know of. There's another Fuji track bike sold, just like mine, that is ridden fixed and he has no complaints yet, it's been a couple of years so far. I think riding fixed is more stress than freewheeling would ever be.
meme
My 2003 Fuji Finest-AL road bike comes with the Alex DA-22 rims. I'm relatively rough on them and haven't had any issues. By relatively rough, I mean jumping up and down curbs, jumping over railroad tracks, pot holes, etc. I've even taken them off-road a few times (mainly dirt and gravel surfaces). I did redo both wheels after I got the bike before I started riding on them though.
Paul L.
I had repeated spoke failures on my rear Alex da22. They are relegated to backup wheels now until I can rebuild them. Spokes broke at hub so it was a bad wheelbuilder problem I think (machine built). Not enough tension for my weight I think.
Feldman
How many spokes are in the wheel? Many recent road bikes are equipped with these fraudulent, phony team-time-trialist UNDERSPOKED wheels with 16 to 20 spokes. This is NOT adequate for everyday, general use, just a cheap little scam pulled by the bike company's marketing department to make the picture of the machine look better in the catalog. Insist on real wheels with 32 or 36 spokes, built by a real bicycle mechanic who uses a tensiometer, dishing tool, thread treatment (Wheelsmith Spoke Prep or similar) on the nipple threads, stuff like that. A lot of bike manufacturers' cheap geek-fraud wheels are a sleazy, cynical way to avoid the expense of equipping bikes with real Shimano hubs, real Mavic rims, and the like.
galen_52657
Call an attorney
neuron
is the front wheel radially laced? my stock felt wheels were radially laced.
no problems with them, though.
slvoid
Call an attorney
Are you injured? Unable to work? Dead? If so, you may be entitled to money! Call now!
ventolin
I've been riding a 36-hole DA22 laced cross-3 to a crappy quando fixed rear hub with double-butted DT spokes for about 1200km now. No problems to speak of - I've jammed this wheel in streetcar tracks, hopped a ton of curbs, dropped it into potholes, and generally kicked the crap out of it on Toronto's post-winter (ie. totalled pavement) streets for a few months now, and the worst that's happened was a section going out of true by about 1mm. And I'm about 190lbs. I have no idea if the rims have a quality control issue, and I've been lucky, but I'd definitely be more apt to chalk it up to being built and stress-relieved properly by a very good wheelbuilder. I'm sure that there are defective rims out there - every product has bad batches - but a lovingly built wheel = a strong and tough wheel.
aadhils
I apologize but there was a mistake, not having the wheel with me I looked online for what wheelsets came with my bike. I was looking at an '05 model which does carry the da2, but the '04s were equipped with at450's from alexrims. I apologize for the mistake.
Looks like some of you guys missed this part of the thread...
p.s. why resurrect an ancient thread :rolleyes:
lilHinault
Holy **** my Langster's got Alex DA16's on it, I wonder how many of those have fallen apart?