I acquired a set of Spinergy R2 Spox in near perfect condition. I plan to use them for training on my roadbike. The rear wheel needs to be trued a tad. Otherwise, these wheels are looking good.
I am nervous about riding these as I heard they are prone to failing at the nipple. Does anyone have any good or bad advice about them. Or should I sell them on ebay?
Thanks!
F
I have a pair of Spox R2s. They’ve been my training wheels for two years. They’re light and comfortable (they’re also about as aerodynamic as a brick wall but I couldn’t care less about that on training wheels). I like them a lot.
I have heard the same things you have about nipples breaking. I have personally only had one nipple break and I think that’s about par for the course for a 200lb rider and 8-10K miles. They are not the easiest wheels to fix; they have special nipples, they require special spoke wrenches and the people at Spinergy were horrible to deal with when I was trying to get the wrenches and nipples. Still, if the wheels are out of service for one week every two years, you could do a lot worse.
Parenthetically, I don’t see a huge safety issue with nipples breaking. Obviously, you don’t want it to happen on a big descent but as long as you’re on flat ground, a nipple breaks, you tie off the spoke, maybe open your brake (though mine stayed true enough that I didn’t have to), ride home and fix it.
Bottom line: if I were you, I’d keep them. If you don’t want them and they’re 650s, let me know how much you want for them and I might take them off your hands.
Rich:
Thanks for the note.
I think I’ll getthe rear trued and then ride them for a little. I juist don’t care for Spinergy products since the service and Customer Support has been like dealing with insane people.
BTW - they are 700’s.
Thanks again!
Fran
Please help me out. How is dealing with our customer service department like “dealing with insane people?” Our current customer service staff consists of Erik Burgan, pro triathlete and expert mechanic, Keith Miller, Cat1 road racer and probably the fastest Time Trial guy in Socal right now and we just hired Shaun Albin, formerly of Castelli Squadra. I dont think any of them are suffering from mental illness other than addiction to cycling. Sometimes the requests of consumers border on insane but we try not to get upset. We last produced SPOX wheels in 2000. They carried a one year warranty for the “original” owner. If someone called up today, who had purchased them second hand, we would let them know that they were outside the warranty period and ask them to go to a local bike shop for service. We dont sell parts directly to end consumers. If thats insane then I guess we are guilty as charged. If you have received other information please let me know and I will get to the bottom of it.
Sincerely,
Paul Cusick
V.P. Sales and Marketing
Spinergy
I have a pair of R1’s and I think that they are good wheels. I have a few K miles on them, and they stay true. If you are riding an aluminum bike, they’ll absorb a lot of the vibration and soften your ride up. My only advice, change the rim tape to velow, or you’ll pinch flat frequently. good luck.
Man I love this forum!!
Paul,
You mentioned that Spinergy does not sell parts directly to end consumers. Why is this? I can come up with three different “arguments” for doing this. 1) No infrastructure to fulfill small direct orders. 2) A desire to keep resellers happy by requiring customers to work directly with them. 3) Possibly an attempt to limit any potential liability issues from users improperly servicing their wheels. (I’m really stretching for #3)
The reason I ask is that I much prefer to purchase products from companies who are willing to engage the customer directly. This does not mean that I don’t use bike shops, I do all the time. But I like working on my bikes myself, and unfortunately have come across far too many people in the “bike biz” who I just don’t trust. (Many bike shops and their techs come to mind.) So to me it’s a plus when I find a company who will work directly with me to get the most out of their product whether I am the original owner or bought it 4th hand off EBay. I tend to be put off when I get pushed off to an LBS. Even though it may not be the intent, the message I get is “you don’t know what you’re doing, we’d rather not deal with you, go bother the bike shop.” Many times I’ve had a set of X-Aero Lites in my hand wanting to pull the trigger (like 2 weeks ago when I broke a hub on a ride) and ended up putting them back on the hook b/c of reasons such as this.
Thanks,
Dave
Paul-
I’m sure your customer service guys are great cyclists and, as you saw from my post, I like your wheels. That said, there’s a difference between riding a bike and selling and supporting a product and your customer service sucks. When I broke a nipple, I tried to get nipples and wrenches from Spinergy. They said “we don’t sell to consumers, go to your LBS.” One LBS told me they didn’t have the part and it was too much of a PITA to deal with Spinergy to get it. My other LBS tried to order the part from you (while I was on the phone). It took an hour and two weeks later we didn’t have the part and Spinergy couldn’t tell me or the LBS whether you ever received the order or shipped the parts.
You aren’t doing your customers any favors by giving them a runaround when they need a ten cent part and a two dollar tool to fix what is generally acknowledged as the weak point of your proprietary spoke/hub system. Sell me the damn part directly. If it costs you money to sell parts direct to consumers, charge me $5 for a ten cent nipple and charge me $20 for the two dollar wrenches. I’d rather have that than what I went through. You are not doing your dealers any favors either by “protecting their turf” and forcing them to waste an hour dealing with your arcane ordering system and pissing off their shop tech and their customer when you don’t send the part.
Let me know what part of my request is insane.
I am sure you are a great mechanic and can rebuild and assemble anything. The problem with selling repair parts directly to end consumers is for every great mechanic out there there are 10 guys riding around with 3 inches of spacers under their 95 gram ITM magnesium stem on an all carbon steerer tube which they tightened down until they heard cracking etc etc. The liability issues are huge. If you somehow incorrectly rebuild your wheel and it fails at 40mph on a downhill and you are killed. I guarantee your family’s lawyers wont call us up and say " you know I dont think he assembled it right" Instead it will be all over the internet that “Spinergy wheel fails causing fatal crash” Believe me I see it at race expos all the time. I have had consumers come up to me with disbonded carbon wheels that they “fixed” themselves with some fiberglass and pieces of wood! I know our C/S has been poor in the past but we have worked hard to fix it. Shops seem to have this hangover about not calling us because 2 years ago they couldnt get a part on time. I speak with dealers every day and if the part they need is in stock then it goes out within a day or two. Some of the parts for the older wheels are no longer available and in those case we have offered very aggressive deals on a brand new wheel. Rock Shox and others have the same policy. I do have spox nipples in stock and we ship them out every day.
Funny that you should allude to Spinergy’s Rev-X woes. I believe that was a bad rap but I can’t help but think Spinergy’s “the customer is always wrong” attitude didn’t do them any good when injured riders and family members went looking for a scapegoat.
You guys have made some good wheels. If you learn how to support a product after you sell it, Hed, Zipp and maybe even Mavic better duck and cover.
These guys can ride and win all the races that they enter, but if they can’t help me as a customer, I have a problem. I am not questioning the riding ability of your staff. I question their ability to “connect” with a customer and provide a level of service that is satisfactory. Paul, it reflects badly on your organization. Especially after past issues. I am not sure who I spoke w/ but when I inquired about getting a replacement spoke and wrenches, the answer I got was “you need to go to your LBS and have them order wrenches.” OK, fine, but why can’t I order them now? Moreover, the person who I was talking to did not give them impression that he was genuinely interested in helping me. Instead he sounded as if he had just woke up.
No doubt, I think that you guys have gotten a bad rap over the past couple of years, but I have given your company the benefit of the doubt. However, in all honesty my first experience in dealing with your support group was not very pleasant. I am sure that you are putting every effort into running a profitable organization, but remember - the customer comes first. FYI - my spoke and wrenches were ordered at REI in LAfayette Hill, PA and after 3 weeks REI was unable to get an answer as to the shipping status. I decided to have them cancel the order. Why should something take a month to ship? Honestly, I take this experience as a grain of salt in the pocket. Fortunatly, I have other wheels to ride on. I just won’t be using these.
Kind regards,
F Graziano