Since December 2024 I have had a Giant Contend AR 2024, the bike already has almost 5000 km, but last week I discovered these small cracks on the rear wheel, there are 6 or 7 cracks right in the holes where the spokes come out.
I am overweight, I am 1.78 and you must be carrying around 95kg. Always use the bicycle with 700×38 wheels so that they absorb vibrations better.
Is it safe to continue using it? What quality/price brand of wheels do you recommend I buy to replace the ones I came with? Thank you
by Sanez95
7 Comments
The rim is dead. Those cracks will continue to propagate until the nipples pull through the rim bed.
If the hub is good and your local scene has a decent wheel builder, you could rebuild the hub into a new (better alloy) rim with double butted spokes for about the cost of a new low end wheel.
I wouldn’t ride that.
Rims intended for touring bikes are usually pretty tough and built to carry a lot.
As a fellow Clydesdale, look into getting your wheels rebuilt with velocity chukker or cliffhanger hoops. Much more durable. My cliffhangers are finally going out after 6years of riding. When I sold the chukkers a couple of years back they still looked perfect. I’m at 136kg btw.
Yes this rim is reaching the end of it’s life due to metal fatigue. This is a common failure mode for lighter weight rims. At some point in time the tension of the spoke and the growing crack will allow the nipple to pull through the rim, which will have the same effect as a broken spoke (the wheel will become very out-of-true. It generally does not cause a catastrophic failure, but you should still replace it soon. Since the bike is less than a year old, I would expect Giant to warranty it. Take it to a Giant dealer and ask them for help!
Yep
It didn’t die, it’s more in the nature of a terminal cancer diagnosis…. Your rim has ~150 miles to live
Same thing happened to my wheels on my giant contend AR.
I replaced them with some carbon wheels from light bicycle.