What are your experiences with the durability and warranty service for carbon bicycle wheels?
My mountain bike has Reynolds Carbon AM 27.5 wheels. Over the years these wheels have failed me several times and proven less reliable than any other wheels I've had. I like their super light weight and short-term durability but their long-term durability has not been good. Next time they fail I'm considering wheels from a different manufacturer. But, maybe there's no point because all of them are like this? Or maybe the others are even worse?
The first time the rear wheel failed, it was because the pawls inside the rear hub that engage the freehub ratchet, sheared or rounded due to wear, failing to engage the ratchet, so pedaling didn't rotate the wheel. This is an unrecoverable failure that had me hiking out of the desert while pushing my bike. Some of the bikes in my garage I've owned for decades and tens of thousands of miles. I've worn out chains & sprockets but I've never seen a freehub internally fail like that. Neither had any of the bike shops in Moab. After I got home I reported this failure to Reynolds. They said these hub internals are "consumables" and I had to buy (not covered under warranty) a freehub rebuild package that included new pawls & ratchet. This fixed the hub.
The second time the rear wheel failed, the carbon in the rim delaminated and structurally failed. The wheel was not crashed and only plastic tire irons have ever been used. Reynolds admits this was a manufacturing defect and covers this under their "lifetime warranty" (I use that term loosely) by replacing the rim for free, and charging $150 to rebuild your old hub into a new rim. With a 6 week turnaround time. I told them I will build the wheel myself so they simply mailed me a new rim. Since they don't make my rims anymore they sent me their closest fit which has different ERD so I'll need new spokes. No big deal, just another $50.
Meanwhile, my other bikes that have metal wheels/rims have never had failures like this, despite thousands of miles and decades of use. So are all of these high end carbon wheels simply not built for long term durability, made to be as light as possible and last a couple of years until the warranty expires? Or are there some that stand the test of time? And is the warranty service from other companies different (better or worse) than Reynolds? I'm not trying to throw Reynolds under the bus, but just trying to get an idea how their durability & service compares with others.
My mountain bike has Reynolds Carbon AM 27.5 wheels. Over the years these wheels have failed me several times and proven less reliable than any other wheels I've had. I like their super light weight and short-term durability but their long-term durability has not been good. Next time they fail I'm considering wheels from a different manufacturer. But, maybe there's no point because all of them are like this? Or maybe the others are even worse?
The first time the rear wheel failed, it was because the pawls inside the rear hub that engage the freehub ratchet, sheared or rounded due to wear, failing to engage the ratchet, so pedaling didn't rotate the wheel. This is an unrecoverable failure that had me hiking out of the desert while pushing my bike. Some of the bikes in my garage I've owned for decades and tens of thousands of miles. I've worn out chains & sprockets but I've never seen a freehub internally fail like that. Neither had any of the bike shops in Moab. After I got home I reported this failure to Reynolds. They said these hub internals are "consumables" and I had to buy (not covered under warranty) a freehub rebuild package that included new pawls & ratchet. This fixed the hub.
The second time the rear wheel failed, the carbon in the rim delaminated and structurally failed. The wheel was not crashed and only plastic tire irons have ever been used. Reynolds admits this was a manufacturing defect and covers this under their "lifetime warranty" (I use that term loosely) by replacing the rim for free, and charging $150 to rebuild your old hub into a new rim. With a 6 week turnaround time. I told them I will build the wheel myself so they simply mailed me a new rim. Since they don't make my rims anymore they sent me their closest fit which has different ERD so I'll need new spokes. No big deal, just another $50.
Meanwhile, my other bikes that have metal wheels/rims have never had failures like this, despite thousands of miles and decades of use. So are all of these high end carbon wheels simply not built for long term durability, made to be as light as possible and last a couple of years until the warranty expires? Or are there some that stand the test of time? And is the warranty service from other companies different (better or worse) than Reynolds? I'm not trying to throw Reynolds under the bus, but just trying to get an idea how their durability & service compares with others.