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Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure
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oxidefilm
Sep 4, 20 7:28
Post #1 of 15 (4720 views)
Greetings,

I took a chance on a set of Mercury S5 CC rim break wheels from Competitive cyclist/Backcountry. They are good looking wheels but I had the rear hub/freewheel fail completely in the first 20 miles. It sheared internally and spun freely in both directions.

I can't find many reviews out there of these wheels that seem genuine so I just wanted to put this down for posterity. Customer service was apologetic and sent out a replacement set immediately. Aside from the failure, they were fast and smooth with very good braking action. I hope this was a one-off failure.

That is all.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [oxidefilm] [ In reply to ]
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rijndael
Sep 4, 20 8:23
Post #2 of 15 (4693 views)
I don't hear much about Mercury wheels, I only know of one other with them. He's not had any issues.

That rear hub looks a lot like the hub on my Flo30 wheels.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [rijndael] [ In reply to ]
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johnnydman
Sep 4, 20 8:43
Post #3 of 15 (4676 views)
I have 2 sets of Mercury S3's that were given to me last year. One set on White Industries hubs, the other set on ?Edge front hub, DT240 rear hub. One set is great with no issues, the other set the rear rim must have overheated and warped (hence, gift).
I had never heard of them but I am pleased with them. These were my first carbon rims.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [johnnydman] [ In reply to ]
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oxidefilm
Sep 5, 20 6:55
Post #4 of 15 (4550 views)
Hopefully it was just a one-off. I'll find out when the replacement set arrives.

Does anyone other than mavic make cassette carriers out of Titanium? Looking around it seems like almost all of them are aluminum and get significantly notched.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [oxidefilm] [ In reply to ]
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rijndael
Sep 5, 20 7:04
Post #5 of 15 (4547 views)
White Industries T11 hub uses a Ti freehub body.

Another way to avoid the notching is to look at an XD/SRAM setup.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [oxidefilm] [ In reply to ]
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jimatbeyond
Sep 5, 20 7:16
Post #6 of 15 (4539 views)
Mavic does not make their freehub bodies out of titanium.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
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oxidefilm
Sep 5, 20 7:50
Post #7 of 15 (4536 views)
jimatbeyond wrote:
Mavic does not make their freehub bodies out of titanium.

Interesting...they used to. My SSC SL freehub is definitely Ti
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [oxidefilm] [ In reply to ]
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jimatbeyond
Sep 5, 20 8:02
Post #8 of 15 (4529 views)
Your wheels had a steel freehub body.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
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oxidefilm
Sep 5, 20 14:20
Post #9 of 15 (4484 views)
dammit
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [oxidefilm] [ In reply to ]
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oxidefilm
Sep 27, 20 12:27
Post #10 of 15 (4280 views)
Updating this. The replacement set they sent is already failing. Pops, creaks and slipping from the rear hub. Out of true after a week. Negative reviews have disappeared from competitive cyclist and don't even post to the Mercury Website. 3 other people this month have had catastrophic failures.
In Reply To:
In Reply To:
The whole situation is very shady. These will go back and I'll replace them with something else.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [oxidefilm] [ In reply to ]
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rijndael
Sep 27, 20 14:04
Post #11 of 15 (4256 views)
oxidefilm wrote:
Negative reviews have disappeared from competitive cyclist

That's disappointing too.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [rijndael] [ In reply to ]
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oxidefilm
Sep 28, 20 11:19
Post #12 of 15 (4182 views)
I will add that other than the reviews getting flagged or disappearing, Competitive Cyclist has been very good about the failures. They shipped me a replacement set immediately after the first one failed and refunded me fully after the 2nd failure.
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [oxidefilm] [ In reply to ]
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Bumble Bee
Dec 18, 20 12:37
Post #13 of 15 (3869 views)
Just stumbled across this brand of wheel and Google brought me to this post.

Any updates on the wheels? Or did you move on?

ETA:Just found a post from 2 years earlier. Same problems as you.
Off to find different wheels...
Last edited by: Bumble Bee: Dec 18, 20 12:43
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [Bumble Bee] [ In reply to ]
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JoeO
Dec 19, 20 9:13
Post #14 of 15 (3720 views)
A few years ago I was looking at those among others. I had a narrow rear chain stay that limited my choices. I ended up going for the Giant SLR-0 55mm wheels. Those were a great choice
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Re: Mercury S5 Wheelset Failure [Bumble Bee] [ In reply to ]
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jimatbeyond
Dec 19, 20 17:42
Post #15 of 15 (3671 views)
Did you see my private message?
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