So I bought some HED Ardennes SL about 4 months max ago. Out last week just riding along and heard a bang and one of the spokes had gone at the rear hub. Apparently HED are questioning if its a warranty issue, looks like LBS is sorting but just wondered if HED were being unusually tight. I don’t mash the pedals, I don;t think I’m too heavy 76kg, I’ve not hit any pot holes and there is no damage at all to the wheel. In my view its a failure to perform the job I bought it for and so is faulty, am I being unreasonable and is this just acceptable wear and tear?
I would say you might be being unreasonable. The fact is, while I now you said you haven’t done any damage or hit any pot holes, you can do a lot of riding in 4 months and it’s hard to say whether it was a faulty product or a combination of environmental factors. First or second ride, it would definitely be the wheels.
But the real question is, WHO CARES? Even a Sapim CX-Ray spoke is only $3. This really isn’t a groundbreaking expense.
well at what I do for a job I’m pretty good, sadly that isn’t fixing bikes so I haven’t a clue how to change a spoke and so it may be a $3 part but it may as well require the use of the large hadron collider for me to fix it which means I’ve had to take it to the LBS to sort and I’ve now been without it for a week, not ground breaking but a pain in the neck. Was considering getting some HED stingers but actually the fuss over a $3 parts making me consider other brands
Well, find a new LBS then! This really isn’t a rocket science kind of repair; more like a 15 minute job.
Listen, this stuff happens all the time. Biking has a lot of variables, and guess what; this happens to people all the time. Sure, people will chime in and say “well I’ve had XX brand of wheels and never broken anything”. If you want to get sour on Hed, feel free; I don’t own any and hold no allegiance to the brand. But getting all butt hurt because of a broken spoke is kind of ridiculous.
It’s an odd one. 4 months is in that ‘middle ground’ between not ‘new’ when a manufacturing issue would expect to show up, and not ‘old’ when fatigue would be into play. Did you buy the wheel from the LBS that you’ve taken it back to, or was it an internet purchase?
The spoke itself is a $3 part, but the mechanics time may be anything from $10 to $50 depending on how the other spokes faired after that spoke snapped. And really, I’d want to work out what the cause was for the break. For example it may be that there is some loss of tension in some adjacent sponkes, hence this one was overloaded, and that’s a more time consuming rebuild / may need a new full set of spokes, even rim.
So if for example you bought the wheel online and now are using the LBS then whilst not perhaps the best encouragement for you to use them, it’s time that they are spending where they’ve had no profit. And HED are going to want some info efore they stick a cheque in the post to the LBS for their time, otherwise they’ll be sending cheques to every bike shop in the world on a daily basis. On the other hand if you did buy the wheel from the LBS then I would be expecting them to come up with an answer, and if that was ‘faulty wheel/spoke’ then they should be sorting it out in the next couple of days and debating the warranty funding with HED to make sure you stay loyal as a customer. That’s the advantage you get when you do buy stuff from your LBS.
Here, no one’s winning. You’re not happy as you don’t have your wheel, the LBS isn’t happy as they are at risk of being out of pocket, and HED aren’t happy either as they are being blamed.
It should be an easy fix for most bike shops. Now if you were riding an H3 you’d have a problem.
I would say you might be being unreasonable.
I dunno. A properly built wheel shouldn’t be snapping spokes. When replaced, I’d be concerned what the original issue was, whether the rim or other spokes were damaged, and whether the wheel is evenly tensioned (one of the most important aspects of a reliable wheel).
For me, having my wheel disintegrate in the middle of a ride is a big deal and something I’ll spend money and effort to avoid. In this situation I’d spend minimal effort trying to get a new wheel out of it. If that didn’t work, I’d send it to a good wheelbuilder and ask them to work their magic and make sure it doesn’t happen again. If you don’t know a wheel builder, wheelbuilder.com is a fantastic place to start as their motto is building reliable wheels. Give them a call and ask them what you should do.
We always question wheels when the rider claims “they were just riding along” and a spoke broke 99% of the time it is a warranty issue and we replace it/fix it no questions asked … but there is always the 1% that neglect to say they “were just riding along and it broke” but neglected to say they happened to ride over a pot hole or something.
So it isnt you, we say that to everybody until we can get our hands on the wheel and inspect it. Did you or the shop call us and set up an RA for us to inspect the wheel?
Cheers for the last few replies, Duncan yes I bought it from the LBS they seem to be saying that they are trying to get it sorted, They initially said that HED wouldn’t let them fix it without it voiding the warranty, then they said they had spoken to HED who had said it would be OK to fix but they were questioning if the work would be under warranty. Hopefully they will sort it out without it costing me I try to support the LBS’s rather than just going online because I hope I then get a better level of customer service at times like this.
Funny enough Silent I was looking at H3Ds probably not enough to put me off the brand but as Matto said I would expect a wheel to stand up longer and the fact it hasn’t has me worried what was the cause and has this created issues with the other spokes that may appear down the line.So as well as a fix I was after some reassurance that it was generally OK and if it turned out not to be then it would be sorted.
Happy to be questioned Vince, I’d expect it but no idea what the shop have actually done or are doing. That said when I said I was just riding along I really was, no point telling a fib on here then asking for advice on it, I was doing 25mph on the flat middle gear didn’t hit a hole and actually can’t remember ever hitting one, I did once hit a brick but that was only the front which ended in a pinch flat, no marks on the wheel but the flat was to be expected.
I’m now a week and 1 day down the line and fortunately my mate has lent me his spare pair of Mavic Cosmic Carbones surprised how good they felt as an aside.
Shot me a PM with the shop you went to and I will look into it on Tuesday. we’ll get you back on the road by the weeknd
Thanks Vince PM sent 
.
Hmh …
There might be some quality problems with the Ardennes. I am a HED user myselve (Jet disc, H3 front, Ardennes) but the Ardennes (I have the older ones) are built in a strange way. I have a very good mechanic and he was surprised, that the spokes were secured with loctite and he had to heat them up with a blow-drier in order to true them. That should not be necessary with a well built wheel.
But they are light (for an aluminium clincher)