The Beacon Message Board

Checking out my road bike today i noticed some cracks on the rear rim around a number of eyelets. Have replaced the wheel but just wondered what might have caused it. I'm thinking it's either just wear, hitting a pot hole ! or most likely... over tightening the spokes....

How old's the wheel Neil?

I've seen this quite a few times with Aksiums. After a certain age the area around the eyelits seems to become brittle and fragile and prone to splitting . Wether it's through too much spoke tension, old age or lack of maintenance I don't know but quite often with the wheels in question the spoke eyelits are usually very dry and, perhaps corroded as a result. Must admit I love my Mavics and usually apply a small amount of TF2 or Gt85 to the eyelits just in case.

CakeStop wrote:How old's the wheel Neil?

They are the wheels i had with my Trek so must be close to 5 years old i think. Done quite a few miles but as you know i have two other bikes so it's not been continuously ridden during that time.

Pedlo Mudguardo wrote:I've seen this quite a few times with Aksiums. After a certain age the area around the eyelits seems to become brittle and fragile and prone to splitting . Wether it's through too much spoke tension, old age or lack of maintenance I don't know but quite often with the wheels in question the spoke eyelits are usually very dry and, perhaps corroded as a result. Must admit I love my Mavics and usually apply a small amount of TF2 or Gt85 to the eyelits just in case.

I'll try that myself Nic. Thanks for the tip.