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I have a Giant TCR 2019 road bike which came with Giant PR-2 wheels (rim brakes).
The rear non-driveside rim somehow has a massive gouge in it (several actually) and needs replacing. Thought I'd be looking at like £40 plus labour at the local bike shop but they're saying that Giant no longer manufacture the rims and so likely cannot be replaced, meaning a new set of wheels is required.
Is this really correct? I've no reason not to believe them but I thought rims were a consumable and would be easily replaceable.
The next thought that occurs is that if they had simply worn down through use (rather than some sort of trauma) they would still be un-replaceable and Giant effectively made the whole wheelset a consumable as both wheels would need replacing as soon the rims wore down? or am I missing something?
And of course if I fork out for more/better wheels is there a risk the same could happen again? I'm not sure I've ever naturally wore a set of rims down yet, but still.
Yours confused,
Duggan
Don't know these particular wheels, but having a quick look online they look like pretty standard 28 hole rim brakes rims.
You should be able to find a rim that'll fit pretty easily (Mavic maybe?) and get it swapped over.
Pretty easy job to do yourself - tape new rim to old one, undo each spoke in turn and swap over nipple to new rim, tighten a bit, next one, and so on. Then true in the frame.
Only took needed is a spoke key.
I once had to do this on a touring holiday in the Pyrenees. Luckily found a bike shop with a matching rim....took about an hour or so and a couple of beers.
Any cheap rim brake rim with the right erto width (probably 17 or possibly 19mm) should fit fine and a competent mechanic should have told you that.
Edit: beaten to it!
You can have a fun evening with a spoke length calculator finding a rim to work with the spoke lengths that you have
It’s not just the spoke count that needs to match but also the ERD if you want to reuse the spokes and tape one rim to the other to swap them
Did they just say Giant didn't have any or did they reach out and ask? Giant are usually pretty good at having stuff like that lying around so maybe lean on the store a bit more and make sure they asked.
If the store cant source a rim then that that though, how many miles have you done on the bike?
Are you sure about them being PR-2 rims? My old Defy came with those about 7 yrs ago. They’re like boat anchors and not something I thought would be speccd on a TCR?
Also it doesn't matter how much you pay for a rim brake rim eventually the braking surface will wear out
Give your closest giant shop a call.
I bought my old giant trance online from a Giant franchise sort of store in London and when I had an issue they were no help and wanted nothing to do with it. I went to the closest giant store to me, in York and despite not having any money off me before or after they were brilliant and got me a replacement rear triangle.
Hi, thanks for the answers all 👍
OK, so seems not all hope is lost. In answer to the above:
They’re definitely PR-2
Not many miles at all, it’s a 2019 model but I was studying plus working for 12 months so it had 10 month period of barely being ridden
The shop did ask for the frame number so they haven’t totally ruled out replacement but emphasised they were not confident- so there could still be a cheaper solution to be fair (fingers crossed)
If no luck I’ll try contacting Giant direct, thanks 🙏
The problem with getting a shop to re-rim a cheap wheel is that it ends up costing more than a replacement wheel that is often better quality.
Get a 28 hole rim like a Kinlin XR31T find what length spokes you need e.g. ACI double butted are cheap and perfectly adequate / or get someone to rebuild it for you.
If you can find something with the same ERD (Effective Rim Diameter) and spoke count it should be a simple swap for the shop / your mate who builds wheels (I'd take the opportunity to swap out the spoke nipples at the same time, especially if they're aluminium).
I tend to be super lazy and just google something like "700c rim 28h xERD" with the ERD number, which is usually written somewhere on the rim itself, or is easily calculated. It's how I found Pacenti TL28 and E13 TRS+ rims had the same ERD and got myself a bargain set of rims. Which I accidentally ended up building into a brand new set of wheels.
NB - if it's a straight pull hub, welcome to a world of pain. Giant doesn't seem to publish the measurements for them, so I had to figure it out for myself with the help of a spoke calculator, and even with two beers and a pair of calipers it hurt my poor little Maths GCSE Grade B brain and I ended up ordering spokes 2mm too long. I will never build straight pull again.
Kinlin XR31T
Ah a tinfoil wheel rim.
Put mine on the wife's bike after realising they were made of not alot.
They didn't last there either.
Yeah it should be a simple swap unless you need to have matching rims front and rear.
I have those PR2 wheels though and I'd be using this as an opportunity to upgrade. You could keep the PR2s as a spare set or turbo trainer wheels.
Ah a tinfoil wheel rim.
Put mine on the wife’s bike after realising they were made of not alot.
They didn’t last there either.
Ug, have just replaced my Pacenti rims with Kinlin as couldn't face paying Pacenti money any more. They shortlived?
I did think I was picking out more flakes of aluminium from my brake blocks than previously...
I cannot see if anyone has mentioned it but these guys are the best source of giant spares.
https://www.giantbikespares.com/
It won't be listed on the website, just email with your frame no and model etc and they will come back to you.
techsupport@GiantBikeSpares.com
Thanks all, that is really helpful, much appreciated.
Now I'v slept on it I am coming around to the idea of patching up the PR-2 wheels if possible, keeping them as spares and then buying a new pair (not sure if my wife will come around to this idea).
Does anyone know what the next logical upgrade from the PR-2's would be?
So currently they are rim-brake PR-2's and the rear came with an 11 speed cassette. I just do normal road riding really, I don't race but I do often use it for interval training and shorter faster rides but that could all change into doing longer rides so I don't need anything especially niche.
I'm wondering what sort of price I'd be looking at for a new pair that are 1-up or the next step up from the PR-2's and what model they might be?
I really can't imagine spending more than £400 and ideally it'd be significantly less than that.