Ruined my rear wheel, repair or buy new?
 

Hi everyone, would like to get some advices with my situation, hope you guys can help me out with deciding what to do next.

So I have a set of second hand Campy Shamal Ultra 2013 version wheelset which costed me about £250. I absolutely love these wheels but unfortunately after only a month use, I fell off my bike in the rain at low speed but somehow managed to completely ruined the rear wheel. The rim is bent and I took it to a couple of LBS and they said the bent in the rim is too much, its beyond repair without buying a new rim.

So I been looking on ebay for new shamal ultra rim and they are pretty expensive at around £150 plus shipping. And on top of them, I will have to pay around £45 to get the LBS to install the rim for me costing me £200 in total, almost as much as how much I bought them for.

So right now, I think I have a few options, but not really sure what is best, so I am hoping some of you experienced riders can tell me would be my best bet.

1) Buy a new shamal rim and just suck it up with the costs

2) Get a new hand built rear wheel with the hub I have got right now which I believe is pretty decent (campy ceramic ultra smooth bearings) But my question is, will I be able to get something as good as shamal with less than £200 or something better than shamal at around £200

3) Try and sell the front wheel and the rear hub and get a another set of second hand wheels

My least favourite option is 3 as it will probably cost me the most.

Option 1 seems kind of silly, paying £200 to fix something I bought for £250.

Kind of like the idea of option 2, as I am pretty heavy (94kg) and I heard you can get handbuilt wheels especially for heavy rider. But not actually sure if I can install different rims and spokes on my campy ceramic hub.

Please let me know what you guys think? What would you do in my situation?

Cheers

Number 1, but I build my own wheels so I know it would be done right. I don't trust LBSs to build top-notch wheels.

In your situation I would sell the remains of your wheelset and buy another either the same as you had, different off the shelf or some custom pair you would like.

A crash is an accident, and accidents happen. Nobody said enthusiast cycling was cheap. Whenever you buy cycling goods, you have to think like you are buying them twice. If you can't afford to replace something that breaks, you can't afford to buy it the first time either.

You cannot buy as good a set of wheels as those Shamals for that amount of money. The hub and spokes on those wheels are proprietary, you cannot use another rim that uses conventional spokes. The charge your shop is charging to change the rim is very reasonable, changing a Shamal rim is a labour intensive effort, each nipple has to be fished to its location from the valve hole through the hollow rim. If that shop has previously changed rims on Campagnolo wheels, repairing yours is a very good choice. However, a word of warning: hopefully, all your spokes can be reused. If any have to be changed, new ones are very expensive. I speak from experience here. I had to have a rear rim on my Shamals 3 years ago and one of the spokes had been damaged. The replacement spoke I had to buy cost $20

Buy a new rear wheel you can currently afford and ride them until you can save up for something a bit nicer.

Might seem like a waste, but my goal is always to keep my bike 100% ride capable.

I like simple wheels with easily sourced and replaced parts.

I wasn't aware how unusual your Shamals are. I doubt you will find an LBS that can rebuild the damaged one. Could be wrong, but that nipple fishing thing is a real PITA if you don't do it all day long.

Fishing the nipples isn't as hard as it sounds. Campagnolo even provides the tools used do the job with each new set of wheels. The point is that you couldn't buy a wheel set even half as good for the amount it would cost to repair that one. I know over a dozen people who own these same wheels and a few more who have the very similar Eurus wheels. There is only one person I know who had any trouble with them, but he weighs 220 pounds and is extremely strong and hard on equipment. He breaks everything

I'm in the same boat! Busted my rear hub (Mavic Aksium Elites) on my Caad12.A snake got caught in my rear drivetrain and jacked it all up. I found a regular Aksium at REI but need an Aksium Elite and they are only sold with a bike. Now im in the market for a new wheelset.

What is so good about them? They are fancy, sure, what what is it about their performance that is so good?

Thanks very much for your responses everyone, looks like I only have 2 options and getting it repaired seems to be more sensible

Yeah you are right, I didnt really think about the repair costs when I bought them, just thought they seem like a good deal, lessons learnt tho, cheers

Shame I couldnt build something else with the hub, but yeah after looking around, for the amount of money I def wont be able to get something as good as Shamal. All my spokes seem to be fine to me and the guy from the LBS didnt say I need any new spokes so I think its only the rim and labour I will have to pay. I am not sure if the LBS has changed rims on campy wheels before, and I am not 100% confident they will do a good job as the craftsmanship of LBSs in my country are generally poor. I will be going to UK next month, so will probably get it done there then. Thanks a lot for helping me to make the decision.


Thanks tarmacgreg, my cousin is kind enough to lend me his Mavic ksyrium elite for the time being, so I wont have to buy anything for now