On a group ride I hit a pothole and double flatted, on getting home I inspected the rear wheel closer. There are a few spoke eyelets with cracks. The front seems OK. The wheelset is Bontrager Race X Lite (black rim) from 2003/04.
Is it best to just replace the Bontrager rim or do I have other rim options?
Thanks - Martin
Is it best to just replace the Bontrager rim . Yes. The downside of Bontragers (which are great wheels, BTW) is that you are pretty much stuck with the Bontrager rims due to the paired spoke pattern.
I did a similar thing on a brand new Bontrager Race-X Lite aero front wheel, The spokes are under very high tension and I had the same type of crack develop but on the hub flange side, I took the wheel off the bike and a few days later when the wheel was siting on the floor of my bike room the entire hub flange just randomly exploded and pieces flew everywhere! I am hoping that it is replaced under warranty since they do come with a 5 year warranty.
I got a brand new pair for sales (Campi hub)
Axel
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It never hurts to inquire with your local shop about a warranty. You may be surprised that they go ahead and do it. Worst they can do is say “No”. It’s not like they will take your whole bike and hold it for $1 million ransom.
i had the same problem…my LBS was able to warranty them out with Bontrager at no cost to me. My were 2005 and it happened about 2 months ago…so i had expected them to be out of warranty, but i guess not.
same here…race x lite aero’s (front) cracked at the hub/spoke interface. took it to the trek dealer here in SD and they replaced with out question. they told me they had a batch that were possibly over tightened and that was causing the problem…
Replacing the rim with another Bontrager one is the way to go. I don’t know of any other rim that would work as the hubs have paired holes just as the rims do. Fortunately the rims are relatively cheap - in U.K prices £40 each, a bit more than high end standard rims (Mavic Open Pro ~ £35) and much cheaper than a Ksyrium rim ~ £80 depending on model (not that there is anything wrong with Ksyriums, just a comparison).
The standard DT Swiss spokes used in the wheels don’t need super-high tension, they are tensioned in the same Kgf range as on a standard wheel (130-160 Kgf - rear driveside for reference). Over tensioning them can lead to failure of rim or hub just as on any other wheel.
I replaced the rims on the X-Lites I have been using on my cross bike as they wore out on the braking surface. The rebuild was no harder than a standard wheelbuild and as the spokes are also relatively cheap I took the opportunity to use new spokes. This may be worth considering if you have done many miles on them, the age of your wheels along with the cracking on the rear suggests you have had some good use out of them. I would rebuild with new spokes in your situation.
You should be able to source the rims and spokes from any Trek/Lemond dealer - if you have problems sourcing a matching rim (from the 03/04 wheels), without being able to check the tech manual I’m pretty certain that the rims from the current wheels are the same dimensions if not a perfect visual match.
I should probably say that I work at a Trek/Lemond dealer at this point… The cracking on the rim that you have experienced is no more common than on any other type of wheel that we sell or service so I wouldn’t worry about the durability of the new rim.
By the way, I hope you had a quiet word with the riders in front of you who didn’t point out the pothole you rode into. I’ve had the same thing happen to me, resulted in a really badly dinged rear rim (not a bonty wheel! I think I would have done the same damage to a heavy duty MTB wheel). I was very happy that I at least managed to hop the front wheel over otherwise I’d have been eating tarmac.
Thanks for the info. I went to my LBS today and they said to bring in the wheel and they will take a photo and submit it to Bontrager/Trek for a claim. I don’t have original receipts so they weren’t sure how sticky Trek might be about it.
There were approx 30 people in our ride, only about 10, I had rode with before, but most seemed capable. We were averaging about 36 kph, and it was just luck of the rotation I was at the back. Riders did yell out about the pothole, and I actually moved a little to the left to get a better view…Muphy’s Law, that’s where the pothole was.
Thanks again.
Martin