I like the look and price of spinergy wheels with the PBO spokes… but I’ve heard mixed reviews. Sounds like the spokes are great for dampening your ride, but may not be durable? Truing is a pain and the spokes loosen???
Anyone have firsthand experience with these? I’m looking for some aero wheels.
I had a set for two seasons and had no problems with the spokes. I did have problems with the pawl spring in the freehub exploding, but that was an easy fix. They are very comfortable wheels, not terribly stiff, but ok. They were solid wheels.
Ive owned Xero lites, Stealth PBOs, and FCTs. All are very nice wheels, never had a problem.
KW
I’ve had a pair of the original Spox wheels and now a set of the standard PBO spoked wheels. Both are good tough wheels, I raced CX on the latter pair. No issues. The braking surface is not the greatest is my only complaint.
I originally had the Tilliums PBO which started imploding after two years. I sent them to Spinergy who replaced the hoops with Stealth ones which they claim use a different layup because of the implosion issues. They’ve been fine and true ever since and I use them daily for about 6 or 7 years now.
Later, I had an issue while climbing. Something was squeaking while I did out of the saddle climbs and I was slow to climb. I suffered with that for a long time until by chance, explaining it to a friend who knew someone that used to work for Spinergy. We found out the dust caps on the rear hub were machined wrong and when under tension, rub against the bearing or the race or whatever, causing friction. The wheel would freespin perfectly, but bind up under tension. For a case of beer, he machined the dust caps down and they’ve been fine ever since.
I love the PBO ride.
Thanks for all the feedback… sounds like maybe the older models were the ones with problems and the newer ones are better?
I’m pretty much looking at the Stealth PBO vs some Mavic Carbones, trying to decide.
The bigger issue IMO is that the spokes are very unaero (fat and round). The Mavics will be a faster wheel.
I have an older pair of Xaero Lites that I picked up at a garage sale. The freehub had a split in it, and it was literally impossible to find a replacement but by luck an engineer from Spinergy happened to have a few “laying around in his garage” and sent me one. I lucked out there!
My main problem with them is that the spokes need to be tightened up or something because my rear wheel will flex under heavy torque load. When mounted to a trainer I can see the wheel shift to the side when under load. Also when cranking up high grades the rear rim rubs on the frame from flex.
My LBS has no clue how to ‘tension’ the spokes so for now I am just dealing with it.
The bigger issue IMO is that the spokes are very unaero (fat and round). The Mavics will be a faster wheel.
I’ll second that. I still have some Xero lites and I had some Tilliums, both with PBO spokes. I’ve never had a problem with the spokes. No broken spokes, never went out of true, and nice ride. However, I bought a pair of Mavic Cosmic Carbones (bladed spokes), and they definitely seem more aero.
I did have problems with the rear hub on both pairs of Spinergy wheels. They would start to “growl” after about 1000 miles. I had to take the hub apart and lube the pawl. Not a big deal, but kind of a pain.
I have owned the Xero road wheels, the Downhill wheels (pbo motorcycle spokes) and I still use a set of Xero 29er wheels. The current hub design is solid and uses a Hadley freehub, so no wories there. The ride is unique, and comfortable. I would compare it to the dampening you get from a ti frame. In the last 2 years I have had 1 spoke failure (on the 29er wheels). Honestly ive been quite hard on them and Im not sure they would still be around if they had been standard spoked wheels. If your thinking about using them as training wheels I would say YES! However, Im 200lbs and I would be cautious about the low spoke count aero wheels they offer. My logic is if the 28 hole 700c Xero road wheel is already pretty compliant, the 24 hole aero wheel may lack the rigidity I would want in race wheels. Perhaps the deep section rims make this a non issue, just a thought. Hope that helps!