Pibber

I've been looking for a wheelset to throw on one of my builds and I'm wondering what the weight/power limit on these would be. Clearly, used and possibly 15 years old, conservatively. I weigh 220(dropping pretty fast) and i think that's probably too heavy for these, but they'd look dope on my blue Caad. Besides, they come with an old DA 8spd cassette which is extremely fortuitous in that i'm actually building that bike with an early 600 tricolor 8spd group.

Should i just accept that i'm too fat to ride these?


cross posted in mechanics.

merlinextraligh

IMHO, the weight limit on Spinergy Rev X is zero. Spinergy stopped making those wheels in 1999. There were reports of rather spectacular failures.

Whether they are more prone to failure than other wheels is debateable, but when they do fail, the nature of the design gives rise to the failure being rather impressive.

They're now at least 15 years old. Things wear out, and you don't know how those wheels have been ridden or treated. I'd give them a pass.

dkoernert

^ This. I've also been tempted by the prices on these wheels on eBay before. Do a quick Google search and you should have all of the information you need. I am about the same weight as OP FWIW and I wouldn't ever consider getting on these.

Pibber

yeah, i'm aware of the failures. but, i haven't found any reports that conclusively state that the wheel itself was defective. more often than not, most stated that it was user end failure. eh...i wouldn't be racing on them and i've read just as many statements from people that have ridden them for years with no problems.

granted, i've put 2000 miles on the wolber alpine rim/105 hubs on my 87 since i got it. 27 yr old wheels, and i was fatter, too. they just look so cool....................

darb85

Wheels of death. one stone chip in the spars and boom.

miamijim

All carbon wheels!!

If you like them buy them buy them. The going rate is ~$400 shipped. They have hold their value, there's somewhat of a cult following.

cthenn

What is "spars"?

Phantoj

Heavy wheels that can kill you? Only $400? Sign me up!

shoota 

lulz

Jiggle

Put some Trispokes on there.

darb85

the blades. Excuse me, I'm a sailor

RollCNY

Or a Dr. Seuss fan: "they over there, they have spars upon thars."

Ok, it was stars. But it's close enough.

canam73

darb85

Isnt there a picture in which the wheel is failing mid corner on these wheels?

Pibber

yeah, so, i get it. some people are focused on several failures over a ten year+ span. keep forgetting to not expect much on the 41.

so, no answer from anybody in the know.

carpediemracing 

The picture of the wheel failing mid turn is from the Harlem Crit I'm pretty sure, and the wheel had some history behind it, at least that's my understanding. You can also look at the pictures of Adri Van der Poel racing cross on them, or Bugno winning stages in the Giro while racing with Polti, Mapei (Museeuw) etc on them (due to team sponsorship with Ambrosio rims they usually ran a Rev-X rear with an Ambrosio rim wheel up front), Cipollini winning Tour stages on them, etc etc.

Depending on the generation of wheel I think it'd be okay to ride them. You want outboard bearings up front, all aluminum wide diameter hub between the blades. If you see any kind of a circlip or carbon on the hub between the blades then stay away from them. If there are any chips in the blades stay away (although I rode on a set for 7? 8? years that had a pedal go into them, no problems).

The X-beams really help (they are braces that attach about 1/3 down the blade from the rim). If the wheels are the SuperStiffs (the carbon reinforcement inside each blade is twice as thick) they'll be better. The ultimate would be late generation Spinergys with outboard bearings, full aluminum rings on the hub (no circlip, no carbon visible), SuperStiffs, with the X-beams. I rode them when I was as heavy as 215 lbs, they were my winter training wheel because they were so durable.

The front wheel isn't as stiff as many other wheels out there so I preferred to run a TriSpoke front for races. The Spinergy rear, although heavy, was bombproof for me. The front I only felt okay on the SuperStiffs with X-beams. I had SuperStiffs, one of them was had the ExtraLight treatment (rim was drilled out on the faired side, I couldn't tell except the wheel is more flexible, and the axle was Ti).

Having said all that a similar year TriSpoke would be a better choice in my opinion. Let's put it this way. I gave away the Spinergy Rev-Xs I had, something like 6 or 7 wheels. I kept the three TriSpokes.

Some info on the company (I just found it now, trying to find some pictures of the wheels):
https://pistarice.blogspot.com/2008/1...ev-x-idea.html
It's pretty good, there's a lot more, but it covers the basics. The company got started in order to develop and sell the transmission but it was too fragile and broke too easily. They started selling wheels in order to try and generate revenue, dropped the transmission, and eventually moved from CT to CA.

The picture that led me to that post, Cipollini with Spinergys:


The SuperStiff, the X-beams, they were basically developed in response to the pros' requests. Cipollini complained that the first set of wheels he got were too flexible. They sent him X-beams. Too flexy. They sent him Super Stiffs, with X-beams (I think at the time SuperStiffs didn't exist, they just layered 2x the stuff on the blade). Too flexy. They painted the wheels red and put "LION KING" decals on them. Perfect. Cipollini went out and won some Tour stages on those wheels. Kind of funny. Last I heard one of the ex-employees still has those wheels somewhere.

carpediemracing 

If you can find a Specialized TriSpoke rear wheel (aka freehub, not a freewheel type front/rear wheel), they came with DA freehubs, and only a DA freehub. When HED started making them (HED3) they converted them to the Ultegra type, but I don't know when that happened.

Pibber

thanks @carpediemracing

that's a better answer. i'm also looking at a pair of Gipiemme alloys. i might try to pick up both.

merlinextraligh

You got answers; you just didn't like them because you want people to confirm what you already think.

The design of these wheels was questionable from the get go. Not sure anybody has good data regarding whether these wheels fail at a higher than average rate. But when the do fail, it can cause a crash, unlike a typical broken spoke or cracked rim in a more conventional cf wheel. This is the purported reason the UCI banned them for mass start races.

Spinergy quit making them 15 years ago in part because of the failure problems, and in part because there are better carbon wheels out there.

If you read Spinergy's web site, and their comments about whether to continue to use them today, it's a carefully worded lawyer answer. They can't say "don't, it's unsafe" without exposing themselves to liability, so they say inspect them carefully and be careful.

So, you're looking at a wheel with a questionable design to start, that is now 15-25 years old, that you don't know how it's been cared for in that quarter of a century, or how many miles it has on it, and you're pretty heavy as far as road cyclists go.

Don't see any problem there, go for it.

canam73

Yeah. And the pic I posted is funny.

Pibber

no, i got, outside of yours and carpe's responses, low grade 41 troll. i appreciate the input, and that's what i wanted, was input, not LuLz wheelz of death LOlz darr darr here's a picture of a guy with a faild wheelz

i mean, i can do the same, and that's a more recent wheel, with spokes.


every bike repair/ maintenance book, blog i read, or video i watch has at some point said to always inspect your bike and its components pre ride. i'm don't want an argument, but i don't like superfluous BS either. must 41 in the 41, i guess......

merlinextraligh

^ If you watch the video sequence of Cavendish's crash, Cavendish crashed into Haussler, and his wheel was run over when he was going down down.

It's one thing to destroy a wheel in a crash; it's another for a wheel to fail and cause a crash.



Also look at the wheel in the video after that the shot of it deformed on the ground. The wheel immediately pops back to it's basic shape.

From looking at the wheel after the fact, it looks like it retained enough integrity that if Cavendish would have somehow popped back up on it, it wouldn't have collapsed under him. That crash, and the pics of the wheel after the fact, support the argument that a conventionally spoked wheel is less likely to fail in a catastrophic manner.

merlinextraligh

Better, but longer video (Start at 1:14):



#t=70

Pibber

moot point(s), now. ad's been deleted.

What about the UCI testing for those wheels? I'd heard that they were beyond the normal testing parameters for other traditionally spoked wheels. They wouldn't accept the wheel because they may cause "detached retinas"? LOL

halfspeed

Conventional wheels certainly can asplode. I'm still recovering from this.