Originally Posted by
BoSoxYacht
Even spoke tension is very important to wheel durability. After a few hundred miles its important to have spoke tension checked. It's possible for a wheel to be true, but have uneven spoke tension. If the mechanic say it cracked because spoke tension was too high, there's a good chance this would have been caught by the mechanic when you had them trued.
How much do you weigh? I have 2 friends that have Ksyrium Elites and both of them are over 240lbs.
I don't have any answer about the warranty question, but my guess is that the rim would have a warranty, but not the hub/spokes.
Swapping the rim is really easy if you have the spoke wrench and a little tape. Tape the new rim to the wheel with valve holes aligned, and loosen each spoke 1 turn at a time until they are all very loose. One by one swap each spoke from the old rim to the new one. Once they are all transferred to the new rim, take it to a good wheelbuilder for proper tensioning.
I've shown many BMXers(pre-teenaged) how to fix wheels like this, so I'm pretty sure almost anyone could do it.
Thanks for the reply. So you check your tension every couple hundred miles? That would be like once a week some months for me. I've honestly never had my wheels retensioned, just trued by eye as I spin the wheel on the frame. Haha, you probably will find this horrifying given your background and wheel expertise.
I have slowly learned to do bike maintenance myself as issues come up (regreasing stems, swapping chains/cassettes, etc.), but didn't know retensioning the spokes was needed unless untrue. I should really come up with a scheduled maintenance checklist instead of waiting for things to come up as they start causing issues.
I weigh 220 lbs, but usually have at least a couple water bottles, a full saddle bag, and a hefty frame pump. Up until the crack was noticed, they performed well for 4k miles. I wish I knew when that crack formed. Like I said before, it was only noticed while the LBS was doing a warranty replacement frame swap. I probably would have had no idea about it for a while if my frame right chainstay hadn't snapped. I am a pretty strong grinding rider who likes to go off saddle up-hill, so that probably doesn't help.
Swapping the rim is tempting as I like to learn new things, but you're saying the $150 is the price AFTER I swapped the rim myself? I'd consider getting a spoke tension meter and do it all myself, but I know wheel building is truly an art form and I might lack the patience for it.