Hi,

After about 11,000 miles of riding our Cannondale Road Tandem, the rear wheel felt a little sloppy, kind of like if the rear tire was low or flat. At the next stop a pinch of the rear tire ruled that out. But, upon closer inspection of the rear hub, I was shocked to see that two places on the drive-side hub flange had failed and one place on the non drive-side hub flange had also failed There's also a crack on the drive-side flange where another chunk of the hub is about to pull out and two more spokes will be gone. I'm very surprised with this level of failure of a tandem specific White Industries hub after not that many miles, relatively, but maybe I shouldn't be. Together we weigh in at around 310 (170 front/140 rear) lbs and when we go touring our rear panniers are usually around 45 pounds total, 8 lbs in the rear trunk bag on top of the rack, and no panniers or handlebar bag on the front. The bulk of the 11,000 miles are on paved surfaces but we have ridden on some gravel roads and paths occasionally. This White Industries rear hub is a 40h hub and about 3.5 years old. Either there were defects in the hub, the wheel was built up wrong (wrong spoke tension), or we just plain overloaded the wheel. No damage to the rim. The bike has not been wrecked or ridden anywhere that I would have expected this level of failure of a hub.

Any input on likely causes and recommendations for a more robust wheel that is suitable for loaded tandem touring would be greatly appreciated.

John