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Having kept my nice road bike tucked up in the garage over the winter I started to get it cleaned and lubed ready for the better weather and noticed an issue.
The rear wheel wouldn't turn freely and upon closer inspection noticed one of the nipples had sheared at the rim but even worse the rim has failed at the spoke hole.
The rim is a Light Bicycle 24mm carbon road rim which I ordered middle of Feb last year but due to the Chinese New Year they were delayed and dispatched 31st March then add in courier time + customs delays well within the 1 year warranty.
Light Bicycle have come back with it's outwith the 1 year warranty and offered a $5 discount on a new rim.
Even on their warranty info they offer crash/accidental damage discount of 15%.
Surely the warranty should start when you receive the goods not when you place an order or they dispatch it.
Did you have to fill out a warranty registration at the time you received them?
If so then surely that would be the start date.
If not then I'm not sure how they would calculate when the clock starts ticking...
Aluminum nipples?
Yep aluminium nipples and no I didn't fill in a warranty registration form.
They seem to be claiming it's from the order date which means I only got 10 months with them in my possession.
Sent an email back trying to explain the situation especially as I've only done 200 miles max on them.
Aluminium nipples/carbon rims gives a wicked galvanic cell. Especially if there is any moisture about.
So the nipple failing isn't a big surprise.
The rim failing might be any one of half a dozen things.
Just buy a new rim and get the wheel rebuilt (brass nipples this time!)
Chasing offshore companies for warranty, especially in China, is generally a hiding to nothing.
Well my reply to Light Bicycle must've had an effect as they emailed me this morning saying they'd spoken to their manager and have agreed to replace the rim FOC.
Think I'll have to cover courier and customs costs but that's fair enough then get it built up.
Think I'll get both wheels redone with brass nipples this time, hopefully I can reuse all the spokes but wouldn't be the end of the world to replace them at the same time.
Good news then!
It's generally carbon rims with drilled spoke holes (as opposed to moulded in) that have the problem. As the carbon is touching the aluminium. With moulded in, it's the resin making contact.
But a new build with brass nipples should be a step in the right direction.