magiccx

My wife has a set that she likes, I used to ride them a few winters ago for training wheels, they're not particularly light nor areo compared to current wheels.

We've never had a issue with them and I do check the rivet area for cracks now and then. She just rides them for Tri's.

ninjaman

...Death averted

ninjaman

eddymerckx#1

is that a triple rear der. w a double crankset

trueno92

this is exactly my point...

one member on another cycling forum noticed that the page that was put up with all the "crash stories" was actually hosted by a law firm that was attempting to represent a few unlucky riders accidents. I guess at the time, spinergy was HUGE with marketing ad campaigns, and PR.. ultimately becoming a cycling marketing monster..

THe rivets were actually only a small part of the problem.. as there are actually quite a few variances as to how and where the rivets were placed. quite a few wheels i have seen on the net have had the rivets stamped right over the crease created from the spoke meeting the aero section - consequentially creating a very weak bond, and thus putting stress on the carbon and sometimes tearing the rivet right thru.

i figured there would be some really awesome pics of how badly these things fail, esp with resources like flickr etc...

bearings can be found on ebay.. and i found a french site that has pictures and instructions for bearing replacement.

the bearings in mine are NSK R8D however i can't find any info on the bearings on the web...

ninjaman

There is no such thing as a triple rear derailer.

fatallightning

i believe he means a mid/long cage RD to accommodate the gear spread of a triple crank, as opposed to a short cage on doubles.

ninjaman

I'm sure he does, and that is what he was looking at. But triple rear derailers still don't exist.

BlazingPedals

I once had a rear derailleur that had 3 jockey pulleys. Does that count?

tonyzackery

cool bike. what kind of wheels are those???


couldn't help myself...

wfrogge

They will at some point crack at the rivet points.. soon after they will fail on you.

BHBiker

I think they are the latest Zipps

ridethecliche

I really want a set of those!
(If they're nice to me and don't fail)

eddymerckx#1

next time I'll be veeerrry specific ,OBTW you spelled derailleurs wrong

erliuic

What kind of wheels are these and are they light?

carpediemracing 

The bearings outboard of the hub (per the blog comment) is the good one. I forgot that they went from inboard to outboard bearings since I quickly only had outboard bearing wheels. They never reverted - anyone claiming to have a newer wheel with the inboard bearings is lying or uninformed.

I had them on my mtb as well as my road bike. The mtb was the "bestest", I tried to buy it back after I sold it just so I could get the wheels back.

The wheels were good in cross because there were less spokes so less mud, they had excellent shock absorbtion, and they were strong. And, probably, less spokes to clean, for those that swap bikes every half lap. They did really well in the pro worlds for cross, I think Adri Vander Poel won on them. Mapei used them too, but due to a sponsor conflict with Ambrosio, sometimes the wheels said Ambrosio, sometimes they used Ambrosio labeled FiRs, and sometimes they rode Ambrosio regular rims. Polti also used them, with Gianni Bugno the big name on that team. He used them regularly in road races, like stages of the Giro, and it was his choice, not a sponsor or whatever thing. Of course Cipollini used them too, when he raced for, and won for, Saeco.

The first ones were bad because the spokes weren't anchored properly at the hub (design flaw, I think). They had circlips holding them in place, and if the circlip failed, the spoke unit (i.e. all 4 spokes on one side) would slide in, detensioning that side. Until the bearings went outboard the sides were held by clips of some kind, and they all eventually failed.

The outboard bearing ones didn't fail, that's what I had on my bikes for a while.

They were excellent training wheels because they were fast, strong, and reliable. I didn't feel guilty training on the wheels because they pretty much took everything I could dish out to them.

If you didn't get your fingers caught in the wheel, you were fine. Yeah, lots of folks stuck an arm or hand or finger in the wheel, but I think that's just a part of becoming a bike racer. After a while you stop doing that. Rev-X spokes hurt more when it happens so I think it just got more press. No one gave any press when I stuck a finger in a regular front wheel and watched bits and pieces of my finger fly off. It's because there's no compelling story. If it's an innovative/new/unusual wheel then you have a story.

I think the digi cam wasn't the key. It was the sharing of those pictures, blogs, online albums, etc. I bet NY Velocity or similar NY based sites have pictures of failures, esp in their archives. There was one spectacular one at the Pro Harlem crit - wheel disintegrated in the 4th turn, guy looked like he was pedaling down a ramp. He'd crashed the wheel previously (pretty hard, according to the people I spoke with) and didn't replace it for whatever reason. The wheel broke. The pics I saw show the wheel flying apart as the guy crashes. Do I think it was the wheel's fault? No, I think it was the rider's fault for riding a damaged wheel.

cdr

ridethecliche

Is this what the outboard hub looks like?

eddymerckx#1

there are bearings sold by an ebayer,there are also several types of stickers for the Rev-X wheels, ebay#290279277463(bearings),just ordered some stickers,the bearings are listed as wheel chair Spinergy bearings, I e-mailed the seller to see if theyll fit the Rev-X wheel

FigBug

here is a crappy scan of busted wheel:


here is a rivet starting to go:



There is this page, but the images are broken:
https://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-020/index.html

trueno92

hey guys,

CDR, thanks so much for your always informative replies. I guess a knowledge base resource could be a viable one, so why not.. i'll try to slap it together over the weekend and make it an extension of my existing blog.


regarding the pic above, yes that is a wheel with outboard bearings. Only thing is, I don't yet have the Pictures + Instructions on how to replace bearings on those hubs... only the internal hubs.

I thought that the outboard bearings could also help hold the 4 spokes in place.. and from the spinergy website, it was quoted that the outboard hub also helps maintain the wheel structurally straight in heavy climbing. I doubt this claim, however, seeing as the entire outboard side is smaller than what would have been an end-cap to help hold the spoke-plate in place.

interestingly enough I have a pre 1997 wheel with full aluminum hub, and flush bearings. the bearings are NSK R8D, and still silky smooth.



the rivets are mounted nice and flush tho, against the spoke and not over the crease between the spoke and aero section. FigBug nailed the pic with the rivets being improperly placed. That page he linked was copied from another souce and was actually hosted by a small claims law office.

ninjaman

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/derailer.html
I don't live in France.

ridethecliche

Pwned.

ridethecliche

For anyone interested in the wheels with outboard bearings:

Ebay link

I'd love a set of these, but I've already smashed my face in once, and I'd rather not take my chances. I know CDR said that the ones with outboard bearings didn't fail, but still. A little scary. I bet they're super aero though bleh!

They're a around 430 bucks shipped after the cashback offer.

FatguyRacer

I've had 2 sets of the road version. A set of the original design and the updated design. I also have had a hand in killing off the Rev-X-Rox MTB version when I destroyed the Spingery reps set the first time I took them on some very technical trails. I was none to pleased to have to port my bike 2 miles outta the woods.

My 1st set of road rev-x's were destroyed in a crit crash. I got cuts on the insides of my thighs from front wheel's blades when I fell on them.

The 2nd set I sold in 2001 to pay for Porsche parts. I wasnt racing at the time anyway.

Now I'm sorry I sold them. The front wheel was great to pair with a rear disk on a TT bike.

ridethecliche

Use the link above to buy the clincher set! There are some good ones floating around ebay. The one I linked to has the outboard bearings, and it's like 430 bucks for the set after the ebay cashback.

And wow, are they really that sharp that they can actually cut things? Hot damn!