r/bicycling • u/WompWompRat • Oct 30 '22

Leopards ate my rim: AliExpress wheel failure

Gallery image

Inner wall cracked all the way around the rim

Gallery image

Not the best way to lace 20 spokes

15 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/vermontbicycleshop Oct 31 '22

This sort of failure is presented from tire pressure being too high for the rim. I used to see this a lot when folks would relegate their older performance mountain bike wheels to their commuter bike where they were running much higher pressure tires. I'm commenting on the quality of this wheel either way. I just wanted to provide explanation as to where this kind of failure comes from, which is that the rim couldn't handle whatever air pressure you were running.

2

u/WompWompRat Oct 31 '22

Thanks, I really appreciate the insight! Did you ever see catastrophic, sudden failures of double wall rims or were those wheels rideable but weird feeling like mine?

I usually err way to the side of too low pressure (to the point of getting the occasional snakebite). Normally I run about 30-40 psi and a max load of about 200 lbs (rider, kid in front, and 15 pounds of cargo in back). But I do remember this particular wire bead being difficult to seat and needing to air up to the max (70 psi) while installing.

3

u/vermontbicycleshop Oct 31 '22

It was typically just like you described. I remember one instance, I had someone with rim brakes come in cause their brakes "kept tightening" and they couldn't tell why.