nancy sv

I posted this on the tandem forum too, but thought I'd ask here too.

What is your experience with velocity rims? We had 2 sets split before we ditched them and switched over to Rhyno Lites and they've been fine. Now, some friends of ours are having their 4th set of Velocity rims shipped down to them in Paraguay. I suggest they switch to something else, but I'm not sure what their options are.

They have a 40-hole Phil Wood hub, so need 40 hole rims. What are their options?

cyclist2000

below is a link to Peter White cycles rim page it shows about 5-40 hole rims and gives a description on use.

https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/tourtand.asp

It looks like the mavic A719 are rated well for heavy duty tandem use.

I don't have any experience with any of these rims

nancy sv

Thanks for the info! I'll check it out.

tomn

I am in the same 40 hole 26" boat. Do your friends have 26" rims? If so I did find a source of 26" 40 Sun Rhyno Lite rims. Tandems East, $60. In a panic I bought three 40 hole Velocity 26" Aeroheat rims. I thought that I would change to them this year, and have a rim my wife could mail to me if something went wrong. I am also toying with the idea of sending my 40 hole hub back to Phil Wood where they will swap parts to make it a 36 hole hub. It is probably smarter, but that rarely gets in my way! I have also started considering dumping my beloved symmetrical 145mm 40 hole Phil Wood hub for an asymmetrical 135mm Phil Wood hub. Its only money after all.....

I look forward to more reports on the velocity rims. I read about the failures on the tandem forum; I lost sleep over it!

nancy sv

Good to know the Rhyno Lites are available inthe 40 hole. They are thinking one of them will fly up to the USA to pick up other rims if one more set splits. So far Velocity has paid to send all these rims out to them, but they sit around waiting for up to a month each time they split.

Cactusron

I'm a 265 lb Clyde that rides road. Wheels in the past have been Mavic Open Pros. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep them straight. I recently built up a set of Velocity Dyad's which are designed for tandem use. I have 32 hole rims laced to Shimano Ultegra hubs. So far, so good. I have about 500 miles on them. I built the Dyad's because I can easily run 28's or 32's (the rim is 24mm wide) which obviously improve the ride, but also provides some protection to the rim from my weight. They are available in 40 and 48 holes as well. I am curious as to which rims you/they have been using from Velocity.


Good luck to your friends.

10 Wheels

12,000 miles no problems.

https://www.everybicycletire.com/Shop...elset-622.aspx

brotherdan

I have 40 hole mavic a719 rims on my touring bike. They work pretty well for me, but I'm only one person.

Bekologist

I've ridden Velocity Dyads pretty hard, but i pack very light and run 48H in the rear. no problems yet and going on probably closing in on 10,000 miles on that wheelset/rims.


Yeah, there's two schools of thought on eyelets in rims. If you and your friends are having such poor luck with velocities, perhaps a switch to eyeleted rims might make sense.

And tough to go wrong with the Sun Rhynolites though. you can pound nails with those things.

Kazer

We had some trouble with running wide tires with super heavy loads but I don't think it was the fault of the rim.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerkellen/4302537445/ <-- another long distance tourer with a similar failure to ours with a mavic rim.

Velocity's customer support is second to none.

Here are some good reads:
https://journal.goingslowly.com/2009/...city-rims.html
https://journal.goingslowly.com/2009/...ms-part-2.html
https://journal.goingslowly.com/2010/...ms-part-3.html

I'd go with them again in a heartbeat.

freebooter

No personal experience but the standard recomendation I have seen on the UK boards for a bomb proof touring rim is the Rigida Sputnik. It is heavy though. Spa cycles stock them and they have a very good reputation for their wheel builds. They are a touring and tandem specialist so will probably be able to give good advice. If they would send them to S.America it must be cheaper than flying back to the USA.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/products....id=m2b0s116p67

Velocity rims seem to be very popular in the US judging from these boards but are virtually unknown here.

positron

would just like to comment that as a single ridier, I have had excellent service from my Dyad rims... Also, velocity cust. service will replace rims and even rebuild wheels basically no questions asked. No comment on your friends tandem situation, but just wanted to let other readers know that the company is a good one, and their products are generally great... Im about to buy more velocity rims soon actually.

I used to have 40 H hubs (phil wood) but I ditched (sold at profit) them because of rim availability issues... the tandem couple may be better off buying 48h wheels? probably much easier to find rims, and in a real pinch you can use 36h rims on the hubs...

kayakdiver

More curious than anything but... Do the A719's eyelets rattle like the Open Pro's after 10K miles? This "feature" of the Mavic's I did not enjoy.

Sorry for the thread drift. But it would factor into my choice in rim if this "feature" comes with the A719's.

markf

I've been using Velocity Cliffhangers on my tourer, they've worked fine so far. I don't think I've given them quite the abuse that you and your friends have given your rims, though. They're a very wide, thick walled rim with a fairly deep "V" cross section. I suspect that the deep "V" section combined with the thick walls makes them pretty resistant to splitting (and just about any other kind of failure), but I'm not enough of an engineer to know or explain why.

They're only sold in 26", 32 or 36 hole, so I don't know how well they would work for you or your friends. I think they're worth looking into for anyone planning a similar tour, though, since 32 and 36 spoke wheels are so much more common than 40 hole. These rims are sturdy enough that I don't think 40 spokes are necessary, 32 or 36 are fine even with heavy loads. The only problem is, they are quite heavy. I've compensated for the weight a little by using light tubes, kevlar beaded tires and plastic plugs instead of rim tape, but these rims still make for a very burly wheel.

nancy sv

Thanks everyone! It sounds like this may be a fluke or may not.

bikeguru

Hi Nancy sorry to here of your problems. I work within the bicycle trade here in Australia and for a long time us Aussies have been steering clear of all of Velocity's rims. I am surprised to see that they are so popular in the States. I think because they come in a wide range of spoke hole choices. I have ridden with them in the past in various configurations and have always had issues with the build quality, tyre seat, side wall wear/strength the list goes on. Down Under they are commonly referred to as "Atrocity Rims". Tandems can be tough on rims I would suggest either Rhynos or Mavic they should get you through better than another Velocity. Good luck and cheers Steve.

freebooter

If it has happened to you twice, your friends three times and kazar twice it sounds more than a fluke to me. I think I would be trying something else.

escii_35

Split after 5k miles 3k loaded

Riding them on my Sh$ter until they get really scary then rebuilding with whatever Rodriguez is currently spec'ing on their touring bikes.

nancy sv

I am thinking Velocity rims aren't all that great - I don't understand how so many people are running them with no trouble. We'll stick with our Rhyno Lites.

aroundoz

Hi Nancy,
By splitting if you mean the sidewalls, then my aeroheats did too after 2 short years with only a little touring. To their credit they stayed incredibly true to the end. I am too lazy to look for the link but there was a thread on 26" rims where someone was having issues w/ their cliffhangers which are even thicker than the aeroheats. It sounds like velocity has great customer service since they replaced them w/ their Psycho rim. But at 804 grams, I think I would give up touring if I needed a rim this heavy.

markf

Splitting sidewalls can happen for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the rim. Get a sharp rock caught in a brake pad and it will score the rim, creating a weak spot that can split later on. Likewise, riding in abrasive dust (dirt roads, trails) will cause the brake pads to grind the sidewall down faster than riding on clean pavement.

I suspect that not tensioning the spokes properly will make a rim more vulnerable to cracking or splitting at the eyelets. If the spokes are unevenly tensioned, the spokes that are tighter will transfer more stress to the rim. If the spokes are under-tensioned, the rim will flex more as the bike is ridden, also putting more strain on the area around the spoke holes. These are just some thoughts that I came up with while reading this thread, can any engineers confirm or deny?

nancy sv

Our rims split right down the middle - right along the eyelets. I believe that is how our friends' rims split as well. I know they have had theirs rebuilt by expert mechanics, so I doubt the problem is uneven tension. Ours were rebuilt by experts too, so were most likely OK in that regard.

oneredstar

Mavic A719 is the way to go. Not too expensive and a tough, durable rim that has been used by many cyclo tourists.

Kazer

those aren't immune to failure either:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerkellen/4302537445/

...and their customer service is awful.

markf

Mavic's website recommends a tire width of up to 47 mm for that rim, but the caption on the linked photo says they were using 2" wide (50.8 mm) tires and running heavy loads. Apparently Mavic said the failure was caused by over inflation. The person who posted the link stated that his Velocity Chukker rims failed the same way, again with wide tires and a heavy load. Are we looking at defective products from Velocity and/or Mavic, or are people just exceeding the design parameters of their rims? Along with all these anecdotes, I'd like to know how much weight was on the bikes, what pressure the tires were inflated to, how wide the tire was, and what width of tire the manufacturer recommends for the rim.