Disclaimer: This is a n=1 experience having owned ‘previous generation’ (i.e. Steve Hed) as well as ‘new generation’ (i.e. Anne Hed) HED wheels.
I’ve owned / used multiple HED wheels over the past 10 years, including: Jet 9s, Jet 6s, and a Jet Disc. I’ve also known multiple other cyclists that have rode HED wheels. Outside of a TSA-induced crack in the carbon fairing on my Jet Disc and a complaint from one of said cyclists about the lack of availability of an XD driver for the Jet 6s, the wheels have otherwise been bombproof. But HED’s stellar build-quality and QC track record appears to be faltering following their latest product release: the full-CC Vanquish series.
Given my past experience with HED wheels I jumped at the opportunity to order a set of Vanquish 6 wheels for my Strada build (HED build quality? full CC?, disc brakes? Fuck Yea!). I ordered the wheels in late October 2017 and built up the Strada in the spring of this year. It’s worth noting that my order was filled with one of the original Vanquish 6 (“V6â€) production runs. Following is my chronological experience with the V6s:
Tubeless Compatibility
I attempted to set the V6s up tubeless with S-Works Turbo 26s. While my tubeless experience is limited to 4 other sets of wheels, the V6s were by far the most difficult wheels I’ve ever attempted to set up tubeless. After hours of frustration trying every tubeless trick in the book, I ended up taking the wheels to my LBS. In fact, I had to take them to 3 different bike shops before the last one was able to set them up! The problem seems to stem from the tire ‘seating’ area being sloped inward towards the center of the rim. Because of this, the tire bead doesn’t seat solidly and just slips back down in to the center channel. The 3rd bike shop was able to get them installed by ‘building up’ the center channel with many extra layers of tape, using zip ties and a high-powered compressor. I had a back-and-forth email with HED about this with no ultimate resolution.
Tubeless Failure
Once the tires were finally set up tubeless, everything seemed OK, the V6s offered a plush ride and excellent crosswind stability. I happily rode the wheels for over a month without issue. However, after one long day the saddle I sat down on the couch to rest with beer in hand when I hear a sudden bursting / air gushing sound. My first thought was “Holy shit. One of the tires just failed and 20 minutes ago I was descending at 50+ MPH!†No, it wasn’t the tire, the Silca tubeless valve was ‘sucked into’ the wheel:
After inspection, I thought this was a nearly-catastrophic tubeless valve failure, however, after dialogue with both HED and Silca, it turns out the issue was that the HED wheels required a special rubber adapter grommet to be inserted into the valve hole prior to insertion of the tubeless valve. Sure, you could call this user error, but the grommets were not included with my wheels and no one I have ever talked to (including multiple bike shops) have ever heard of having to use a special grommet to set wheels up tubeless. Plus, why would HED design a wheel with a oversized & non-standard valve hole to begin with? Anyway, HED sent me the grommets at no cost. On to more concerning problems.
Spoke Detensioning
Back to the bike shop to set the wheels up tubeless again (this time with the special rubber grommets). Finally good to go, right? Nope. Get a call from the shop that the wheels were set up but the mechanic noticed that the spoke tension was really low - to the point that some spokes weren’t even registering on a tensionometer. Figured this was a fluke and I had both wheels re-trued.
Cracked Pawl Spring
Fast forward another month+ of riding. I return from a long ride and notice that there’s a ‘clacking’ sound coming from the rear wheel. I remove the wheel for inspection and after removing the hub body notice that one of the pawl springs is cracked, causing the pawl to flop around and the resulting clacking sound. I replaced the spring, but noticed while spinning the wheel that there was an awful lot more drag than there should have been, so I take the wheel to my LBS.
Spoke Detensioning (again) & Improper Bearing Seating
After inspection, the mechanic said the bearings weren’t pressed in properly (this was likely causing the outsized drag) and replaced the bearings. The wheel was was spinning freely, but the mechanic noticed the spokes weren’t tensioned properly (again), so he re-tensioned the spokes. But this time multiple spokes twist:
Known Issues & Flawed Build
The bike shop calls HED to see if they can send out a couple new spokes and, get this, the HED representative says “Oh yea, we’ve had production issues with the V6s and spoke detensioning is a known problem. You’ll need to send in the wheels so they can be inspected & rebuilt or replaced.†According the the HED rep:
HED didn’t anticipate the tires being run at “higher pressures,†as such pressures can cause defection in the rim such that the spokes detension. I was running my tires around 75PSI, so apparently this “high†pressure.Several sets of V6s were built with the wrong length spokes (mine included), which can cause the spokes to bottom out (and potentially twist) when being tensioned.There’s a known problem with the dust seal that can cause incorrect sealing and additional rotational drag.The tubeless setup problems I experienced could be the result of the original production runs, as they have since made “modifications†to the wheels.Throughout this process, HED customer service was descent. Maybe a 6.5 out of 10? While the tubeless issue was ignored (HED simply stopped responding), I was promptly sent the adapter grommets, and was notified yesterday that I’ll be receiving replacement V6s. But why wasn’t there be a recall on the impacted wheels? And I have out-of-pocket labor costs of $150+ (multiple truings / tubeless setups) and I had to pay $35 to ship the wheels to HED. I’m getting replacement V6s at no cost, so all-in-all, not terrible I guess, with the caveat that the replacement wheels are functional.
How has HED gone from a venerable brand pumping out bombproof wheels to being crippled with QC issues (by the company’s own admission)? Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it’s hard to ignore the departure of HED’s patriarch and the subsequent ascension of Anne as a likely cause of the breakdown. Heck, if this was a public company, activists would be at the gates demanding a management ousting.
While HED’s customer service still seems OK, failures such as mine are at the cost of consumer confidence and rapidly-compressing margins. Let’s hope Anne can right the ship and rectify HED’s QC issues before irreparable harm is done the the company / brand.
Update
Received the replacement V6’s from HED. They now include a little warning sticker that shows the necessity for using the rubber grommet for a tubeless install. So far, so good with QC - no problems with spoke detensioning and the hubs are spinning silky smooth. Can’t comment on the tubeless setup as I’ve been running with tubes.
