Alexrims DH19 (pics attached)

[kaputnik]

Postby cvaughan » Thu Aug 12, 2010 5:27 pm
They were shocked about the way the wheels had gone wrong so quickly and offered to replace them without question. Their supplier couldn't supply the same rim as instead I now have Mavic A319 rims front and back...

Hi, sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I have had exactly the same failure on the rear Alex DH19 on my Ridgeback Panorama so thought it worth posting, as I found this thread through googling this problem. We found 4 of these cracks in the rim, in the same positions, underneath the spokes. I can't recall if it was drive side or not and sorry don't have photos as I got the LBS to put it in the recycling.

The bike was new in 2010 but I was it's second owner so wasn't under warranty for me. Previous owner claimed to have ridden it from Berlin to Istanbul once over the summer but needed to sell regrettably to get cash. I didn't have too much reason to doubt the guy as he lives round the corner and works in an LBS so I see him from time to time. I've ridden it about 1,000 miles perhaps since then, mainly weekend rides, once the C2C and I find it a great bike for shopping / recycling runs and winter commuting. However it's never been seriously overloaded, I'm not a heavyweight and I ride carefully around rather than through obstacles.

My LBS (different one) took one look at the rims and tutted, said they would never build a touring wheel using them (single eye-letted), said the tension was too high in the spokes and made me up a nice new rear wheel using Mavic A319s also. We had a good look over the front rim but there weren't signs of similar failure on it, but since then the wear caused by the brake blocks has been alarming and I will be taking it in for another inspection at the weekend.

I can't say I'm impressed with these rims, this is meant to be Ridgeback's top of the range tourer. I got better wear out of the rims on my old Halford's Carerra Hybrid bike that did 18 months hard commuting over similar distances and took far more punishment.

[531colin]

I thought originally that this was a RIM problem.
The more times we see this failure with THIS RIM, and no OTHER RIM......unless you know different??
.....the more sure I am that its a rim problem.

The sort of bikes these rims appear on will have machine built wheels.
The spokes won't be "too tight" - unless we adopt a strange definition of "too tight", like "too tight for a badly designed rim to support the tension"

[goatwarden]

I have 48 hole DH19s on my tandem; two sets (one 700c, the other 26").

I have had only one rim fail in around 8,000 miles, this was the rear 700c (probably done 5,000 miles). Following loads of hub failures, the rim had been built onto three different hubs. It failed soon after being rebuilt by a different builder (all builds were by hand) who seemed, to me, to employ higher spoke tensin than the person who had previously done it.

The failure mode was small circuferential cracks originating from the eyelets at the centre line; they were a maximum of 5mm long, going each way from several (12?) eyelets. It had done 325 miles since rebuilding. Had the wheel been on a single bike, I probably would have let it go on for lots more miles but I don't like to take chances on the tandem; I suspect an accident on the tandem would be far more messy than a single, and my last single accident broke my hip!

The wheel was rebuilt, by the same chap, with a new DH19 and has done around 550 miles with no signs of cracking, out of true or lose spokes.

[ericonabike]

I saw this thread last year, when I had exactly the same damage appear on the rear Alex DH19 on my Specialized Tricross. Took the bike back to Rutland Cycling, who despite its being two years old and hence out of warranty, got both wheels replaced by Specialized [not with Alex rims either!]. Rutland Cycling's customer services manager was as perplexed as me at the idea of rims failing so soon and so badly - especially as the machine is a cyclocross bike!

[531colin]

I have 48 hole DH19s on my tandem; two sets (one 700c, the other 26").

I have had only one rim fail in around 8,000 miles, this was the rear 700c (probably done 5,000 miles). Following loads of hub failures, the rim had been built onto three different hubs. It failed soon after being rebuilt by a different builder (all builds were by hand) who seemed, to me, to employ higher spoke tensin than the person who had previously done it.

The failure mode was small circuferential cracks originating from the eyelets at the centre line; they were a maximum of 5mm long, going each way from several (12?) eyelets. It had done 325 miles since rebuilding. Had the wheel been on a single bike, I probably would have let it go on for lots more miles but I don't like to take chances on the tandem; I suspect an accident on the tandem would be far more messy than a single, and my last single accident broke my hip!

The wheel was rebuilt, by the same chap, with a new DH19 and has done around 550 miles with no signs of cracking, out of true or lose spokes.

This sounds like a different failure to those photographed "up thread", where the cracks didn't originate from the eyelets. But I don't understand what you mean by "circumferential".
You had short cracks, starting from the eyelet, heading towards the next eyelet, in the middle of the rim's width?

[goatwarden]

You had short cracks, starting from the eyelet, heading towards the next eyelet, in the middle of the rim's width?

Yes, that's it.

[jochta]

Old thread but only just discovered. I had the same failure on the same rear rim of my 2008 Ridgeback Panorama after about 3000 laden miles. Front is still OK. LBS who specialises in tourers built me a "bomb-proof" new rear wheel using a Mavic rim.

Note that Mike Carter the author of One Man and his Bike (who used a 2008/9 Ridgeback Panorama) also suffered a failed rear rim in the same way cycling around the coast of Britain.

Thought it worth mentioning in case anyone else has a Panorama from around this era. Definitely worth checking the rims for cracking as they appear to have used a dodgy batch of wheels/rims.

[pga]

My Panorama dates back to to at least 2005/6. I've cycle toured to the Semaine Federale every year since then, plus other UK cycle camping trips, with no problems. Alas, I now have a fear that a failure may occur at any time. Best not to read these forums.

[CREPELLO]

My Panorama dates back to to at least 2005/6. I've cycle toured to the Semaine Federale every year since then, plus other UK cycle camping trips, with no problems. Alas, I now have a fear that a failure may occur at any time. Best not to read these forums.

Ignorance is bliss, I guess. Or keep an eye on the spoke eyelet let area. Sometimes you only know when a failure is going to happen from inspection. I discovered a cracked Reynolds 531 fork blade from inspection. I could have left it till that strange elastic feeling at the handlebars..WHAT T...

[Big T]

I too have a Panorama (2008 model) and I too have suffered a similar rim failure in an Alex rim. Mine was the rear rim and it lasted about 5000 miles. Now replaced with a Rigida Sputnik from Spa. Maybe overkill, but I don't want a rim failing on me in the middle of the Scottish highlands. Still using the Alex rim on the front wheel.

[hillspecial]

Wow,

I've had a very similar problem.

See post linked below

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=66655

The pics in the above post show very similar probs / the same problems, that I had with my alex rims on my Ridgeback panorama. .

I've put some pics of my rims on Flickr - link to the flick set in the ctc forum post above.

Also here http://www.flickr.com/photos/hillspecia ... 0808/show/

HillSpecial.