bmonnig

Guys,

I'm curious about any experience you may have with these wheels. Talking to a guy I trust at the LBS, he stated the Ritcheys are "really lightweight, so they can say they're really lightweight...but I don't know I can say much more about them." He said he would expect them to be flexy, and they seem to go out of true fairly often. He said durability certainly wasn't a strong suit.

We were discussing the Ritcheys in relation to the Mavic Ksyrium Elites. The LBS guy (Paul) said they rarely, if ever, see Mavic stuff come back for work. He stated the mechanics didn't have anything good to say about the Ritcheys, other than they'll be seeing the mechanic's stand a lot more often.

So...I'm just curious to see what input you Ritchey users may have on the subject.

WheresWaldo

I have the Ritchey WCS Protocols on my bike, I am currently 242 pounds and have only had one incident with the wheels. That was when I accidently hit the back of my daughters bike at about a 15mph differential. I have since trued them up and have about 800 miles with no other problems. they are a little flexy, but at my weight nearly every light wheel would be.

sverrefehn

No problems here and I race on them. Crits and road races. I weigh 160 so I have not noticed any flex issues.

Dalai

So far 3000 km + (75kg) with only one spoke on the front that would loosen after retightening. Took it to the LBS to get the whole wheel retensioned, since then no problem.

Good value for the weight.

Mine was also part of the hub recall so sent it in - though I didn't personally have any problems with it.

@whereswaldo - I am surprised they have held up. When I was looking into these, I was told by Ritchey via email that they had a max weight recommendation of 180 lb (this may have since changed - email from November 2004)

Ostuni

love them. have them on two bikes and about 2200 miles total. no issues. terrific wheels.

blandin

Here's what Ritchey told me in January.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ming Tan [mailto:mtan@ritcheylogic.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:03 AM
To: 'Bradley Landin'
Subject: RE: WCS Protocol

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your support. There is no weight limit on any of our wheels. We also have a new wheelset coming out called the WCS Protocol Limited. It uses lighter weight Sapim X Ray spokes and a Swiss made DT rear hub.

Thanks,

MT

Ming Tan
Sr. Marketing Manager
Ritchey Design
Syncros Applied Technology
P: 650-587-6716
F: 650-261-1317
E: mtan@ritcheylogic.com
W: www.ritcheylogic.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bmonnig

Well, this is certainly good stuff to hear. I currently weigh ~184 lbs, and I was concerned that I may cause an issue with that weight. I'm not a racer, just a recreational rider. I guess that means the wheels may see more "inclement" asphalt than a nice, smooth predetermined course.

When doing a Google search, I saw several complaints of broken spokes, spokes pulling through the rim, tensioning / truing issues, etc. These all seemed to be in the '02 / '03 timeframe, though. I guess it's possible that the issues have been fixed since then.

I'm asking as the wheels are a component of a bike I've recently purchased. I'm doing some evaluation of the bike, as I've got a 30 day return policy. Having to replace the wheels would pretty much invalidate the reason I purchased the bike.

shawnj73

I have over about thousand miles on mine and I love them. 225 LBS rider and I have felt no flex!