Hi all,
Need some advice and perspective from the collective experience and wisdom of the Hub! I bought a used Shimano PRO disk wheel from a fellow Hubber (an Ultimate Hubber) in April 2013 for approx R4500 (incl postage). The disk was in good condition albeit the specific Ultegra hub was discontinued in 2007. The owner could not give me more specifics of the age of the wheel. This wheel was a racing wheel and I had used it 10-12 times since for one TT race and some final TT preparation rides (simulation TT's and 3-10 min intervals). Never had a problem or glitch, a LBS said the wheel was in good condition.
Recently, I had been doing 3 preparation rides for our provincial TT champs (1 setup ride and 2 simulation TT's of 20km's). No problems - the only change was a slight tick-tick sound which I could not locate during the ride and since I bought a second-hand Ritchey deep-section carbon front wheel, I thought it might be something like brake pads catching on either the front or rear wheel, especially when loaded and under torque. After my Wednesday ride - no problems even when pushing 300-400 watts - I took my bike around to a LBS and indicated the slight noise I was hearing and asked just to check my index gear shift and see if the brake pads might be catching. On Thursday morning - 3 days before the race - I went around to the LBS workshop to find the hub completely stripped and was told that the hub was broken. I had received no phone call to ask whether the hub could be stripped or that the hub was broken. See the attached pics to get an idea of what was broken. The mechanic gave me the freewheel with sprocket still attached, completely severed from the main hub. The mechanic indicated that I had either been riding with it like that or it had fractured and when trying to remove the freewheel the sprocket severed from the main hub. I was skeptical - the wheel is a good make albeit it an older model but in good condition. Moreover, it's a low mileage wheel and I'm an amateur cyclist, not an Olympic sprinter! I had asked several other mechanics and riders and they thought it more likely that the mechanic somehow broke the hub. Shimano gave a very non-committal reply and indicated that they have never heard of such a failure but also suggested that the click-click sound could have indicated an already failed hub.
There is no definitive, smoking-gun evidence that the mechanic broke it or that I bought a damaged, failed wheel and hub. I had an amicable chat with the LBS owner and raised my concerns. We agreed that this is somewhat of a "grey" area and the best the LBS would offer would be cost+VAT for a new wheel which to my mind is not a 50-50 situation anymore but me having to take the punch while the LBS walks away smiling.
Has anyone ever experienced or heard of a break like this, on the Shiman PRO series or any other wheel for that matter? What is the best way to deal with a situation like this such that a fair settlement is reached for both parties?
Cheers,
Ramius
