Life of a Wheel

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Mariner
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Life of a Wheel

Post by Mariner »

I have a pair of wheels that have been unused for about two years since they were trued and the bearings checked and re-greased. I am planning on using them soon and just wondering apart from obvious damage and catastrophic failure do wheels have a finite life? These are 4+ years old with 7k recorded kms. As the rims and hubs are DT Swiss, I assume they are indestructible but don’t have any basis for this assumption.
Hubs I can deal with because they have bearings that are serviceable or changeable but rims spokes and nipples are all a mystery. I read recently about someone checking spoke tension on a new pair of wheels and claiming that they were all over the place and he had to readjust them (?). The only checking I do is to drag a finger across the spokes of the wheel spinning slowly when/if I am cleaning the bike. If they all sound roughly the same, I assume all is ok. Rims are harder to assess as the tyre tends to vary more than a rim so if it ever gets checked it would be a slowly spinning wheel with a fixed object like my finger held near.
So, what do you do? Ride um till they fail or rebuild or even replace on a regular basis?
I am also changing from 135QR on the back to 12x142. Does the rear wheel need to be adjusted or re dished or does the symmetry stay the same only wider?
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sean_iow
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Re: Life of a Wheel

Post by sean_iow »

Mariner wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:45 am So, what do you do? Ride um till they fail or rebuild or even replace on a regular basis?
I think the only reason rims used to get changed is the back in the day of rim brakes and wearing out the braking surface. I've done 10k km on my current rims and have no plans to change them. I also just give the spokes a ping from time to time to check the tension. As long as there are no loose spokes (none yet) I just keep riding them.
Mariner wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:45 am I am also changing from 135QR on the back to 12x142. Does the rear wheel need to be adjusted or re dished or does the symmetry stay the same only wider?
The rim is over the centre of the axle for both standards so no need to make any adjustments.
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redefined_cycles
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Re: Life of a Wheel

Post by redefined_cycles »

Mariner wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:45 am I read recently about someone checking spoke tension on a new pair of wheels and claiming that they were all over the place and he had to readjust them (?)
That'll most likely be due to the wheels having been fsctory built/machine wheels. They're not really assessed* for spoke tensions and thats why (so they say) on firdt use you get lots of pinging as tension is added for the first time and the spokes readjust and align themselves... losing a little bit of true at the same time.


*ie. And tensions added laterally theb retrued as you'd do in a good handbuilt wheel many times over
Lazarus
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Re: Life of a Wheel

Post by Lazarus »

do wheels have a finite life?
Rims do if used as a braking surface otherwise no IME. I have yet to retire a set of disc wheels* - I am yet to replace a rim on them as well- but i assume you can ding one severe enough you need to replace it.


if you can get the spares [ bearings and frewheel ] then a wheel should outlast you and the bike

* about to retire a Quando cheap hub as the freewheeel has play and i have a spare huvb so will build it up into that - technically i could repair this if I wanted to.
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Alpinum
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Re: Life of a Wheel

Post by Alpinum »

Deleted this post as I made a mess quoting.
Last edited by Alpinum on Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Alpinum
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Re: Life of a Wheel

Post by Alpinum »

Mariner wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:45 am apart from obvious damage and catastrophic failure do wheels have a finite life?
I think I had fatigue issues with some Pacenti rims - they cracked along the holes. A not so rare thing - but mostly more likely down to over-inflation. In my case spoke tension and tyre pressure were right, but the way I ride and my 82 kg probably not so much.
It took the cracks a while to develop and at one point I had to realise that the rim was simply too light/weak for what I was using it for as it happened again. Thank f@ck this all went down with no catastrophic failure.
jameso
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Re: Life of a Wheel

Post by jameso »

Alpinum wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:44 pm
Mariner wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:45 am apart from obvious damage and catastrophic failure do wheels have a finite life?
I think I had fatigue issues with some Pacenti rims - they cracked along the holes. A not so rare thing - but mostly more likely down to over-inflation. In my case spoke tension and tyre pressure were right, but the way I ride and my 82 kg probably not so much.
It took the cracks a while to develop and at one point I had to realise that the rim was simply too light/weak for what I was using it for as it happened again. Thank f@ck this all went down with no catastrophic failure.
Early Pacenti rims were known for it, they were light but the extrusions seemed very thin walled. My TL rear cracked after approx 6000 road / gravel miles.

Mariner, I think it's good to de-tape and clean rims every year or so, maybe wipe nipples over with light oil, but that's all, many due to corrosion from salt and cow sub standard etc. Get trueness and tensions checked perhaps.
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