Any experience with Campagnolo wheel warranty/crash replacement?

[jwalther]

Washed my bike after Saturday's ride, and noticed this on my front Eurus. No idea how it might have happened. . .no crash, no pothole, no nothing.

https://i.imgur.com/YtgtFgW.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/LFAXGSo.jpg?1

[oldpotatoe]

Washed my bike after Saturday's ride, and noticed this on my front Eurus. No idea how it might have happened. . .no crash, no pothole, no nothing.

https://i.imgur.com/YtgtFgW.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/LFAXGSo.jpg?1

Where did you buy it? Contact them, they will send to Campagnolo NA(recommended rather than the 2-3 other warranty centers)...If a fairly 'normal' retailer..

[sitzmark]

My experience with Fulcrum brand... response below from Italy regarding crash/damage replacement program for a damaged interior rim bed. At least the Fulcrum side of the business does not have a "damage" program, but will warranty defective product. My (authorized) dealer will order/sell me a new rim, but they do not rebuild.
==================================================

Hello,

we do not offer a replacement program for our product but for most of them we have rims available for rebuilding.
In order to identify the spares you need please send us the traceability code of your wheel:
http://www.fulcrumwheels.com/en/technologies/road-bike-wheels-technologies/traceability
you could find it on the rim or on the documentation that came along with the wheel.

Best Regards
Fulcrum Team
EF
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Descrizione: download (3) Descrizione: download (4) Descrizione: download (5)

[Mark McM]

Are you sure that 'crack' goes all the way through? It might be just a crack in the surface finish. This appears to be right at the welded seam, where the surface finish might a bit irregular.

Note: It is highly unusual to develop a fatigue crack anywhere on the rim except around the spoke holes (from spoke tension), or at the tire bead (from the tire pressure). Fatigue is a tension phenomenon, and the rest of the rim is under high circumferential compression from the spokes tension (except at the locations noted above).

[AngryScientist]

Are you sure that 'crack' goes all the way through? It might be just a crack in the surface finish. This appears to be right at the welded seam, where the surface finish might a bit irregular.

Note: It is highly unusual to develop a fatigue crack anywhere on the rim except around the spoke holes (from spoke tension), or at the tire bead (from the tire pressure). Fatigue is a tension phenomenon, and the rest of the rim is under high circumferential compression from the spokes tension (except at the locations noted above).

yea, realistically, the brake track right above that is much thicker wall aluminum, and holding the rim together. the "skirt" is thin material up to the rim bed where the spokes (nipples) seat. unless you see cracking at the rim bed area, or extending into the brake track area, i think that rim will be OK.

[jwalther]

Are you sure that 'crack' goes all the way through? It might be just a crack in the surface finish. This appears to be right at the welded seam, where the surface finish might a bit irregular.

Note: It is highly unusual to develop a fatigue crack anywhere on the rim except around the spoke holes (from spoke tension), or at the tire bead (from the tire pressure). Fatigue is a tension phenomenon, and the rest of the rim is under high circumferential compression from the spokes tension (except at the locations noted above).

I considered that possibility, but it seems unusual that a finish crack would appear on opposite sides of the rim at exactly the same spot?

[jwalther]

yea, realistically, the brake track right above that is much thicker wall aluminum, and holding the rim together. the "skirt" is thin material up to the rim bed where the spokes (nipples) seat. unless you see cracking at the rim bed area, or extending into the brake track area, i think that rim will be OK.

Call me a chicken, but I'm leery riding in its current condition!

[lhuerta]

...highly unusual that this sort of crack would be symmetrical and appear on both sides. I have dealt directly with Campagnolo NA on a Bora 35 warranty claim (purchased at UK dealer, but had all receipts). The guys at Campagnolo NA are pros and they will ask lots of questions in addition to making their own assessment after inspecting the wheek. For example, based on the damage you show in pics, you can almost predict that they will ask you how/where u park your bike...i.e. do you insert your bike to a steel bike rack at your coffee stop? Did some duffus lean on your bike or drop their bike against yours when its wheel was inserted in bike rack? (I have seen several a cracked carbon wheel as a result of that duffus).

It just seems unlikely that damage in between spoke holes would happen on a EURUS rim while just riding along?. There appears to be a small edge damage on one of your brake tracks (right above the crack), almost consistent with the rim being crunched between something which would have damaged both sides (the reason the questions above is predictable). Also, the damage is probably not a result of having hit a pothole because a jolt hard enough to crack a rim on both sides would have very likely yielded a hump on your rim, or at least damage to the rim edges/brake track walls. From what I can tell, the brake shoe residue and wear on your brake track looks VERY even meaning there is no hump in your wheel. Which brings me back to the original theory above.

Good luck.

[Hank Scorpio]

IMO those are not cracks just poorly finished welds. I have many of the Campy/fulcrum pre builds and they all look similar or worse at the weld joint. Mine were originally covered by decals which I bet yours were too. I am sure they feel that 99.9% of purchasers are going to leave the decals intact so they don’t bother making the welds visually perfect. I can post pictures of some of mine later today if it will make you feel more comfortable using the wheels.

I am not a metallurgist, engineer, physicist, chemist et al. I cannot say that yours are not cracked or unusable. I was just stating my experience. Why not email Campagnolo with some pics and see what they have to say.

[gfk_velo]

...highly unusual that this sort of crack would be symmetrical and appear on both sides. I have dealt directly with Campagnolo NA on a Bora 35 warranty claim (purchased at UK dealer, but had all receipts). The guys at Campagnolo NA are pros and they will ask lots of questions in addition to making their own assessment after inspecting the wheek. For example, based on the damage you show in pics, you can almost predict that they will ask you how/where u park your bike...i.e. do you insert your bike to a steel bike rack at your coffee stop? Did some duffus lean on your bike or drop their bike against yours when its wheel was inserted in bike rack? (I have seen several a cracked carbon wheel as a result of that duffus).

It just seems unlikely that damage in between spoke holes would happen on a EURUS rim while just riding along?. There appears to be a small edge damage on one of your brake tracks (right above the crack), almost consistent with the rim being crunched between something which would have damaged both sides (the reason the questions above is predictable). Also, the damage is probably not a result of having hit a pothole because a jolt hard enough to crack a rim on both sides would have very likely yielded a hump on your rim, or at least damage to the rim edges/brake track walls. From what I can tell, the brake shoe residue and wear on your brake track looks VERY even meaning there is no hump in your wheel. Which brings me back to the original theory above.

Good luck.

Assumption - this mark is at the join in the rim, opposite the valve hole.

If so, that's not edge damage - its an artifact of the manufacturing process and can be seen on many Shamal / Eurus rims where there is a "wall" welded inside the rim (Campag don't use a tongue at this point inside the Eurus / Shamal rims, they use a support that is effectively a wall inside the rim, running laterally, to which they weld the "ends" of the extrusion after it has been curved). It's just weld "flashing" that has not been cleaned off when the rim has been cleaned up, post welding. There are often tiny amounts of material left, up against the edge of the braking surface. Occasionally one sees a little flashing elsewhere around the weld, too. It gets machined off the braking surfaces.

Any crack in the surface finish of an anodised aluminium part is by the nature of anodisation, a crack that penetrates into the material as the oxide layer that you see is part of the substrate - it's not like the old ceramic coatings on braking surfaces which sit on the surface of another material, or a plating process - it is effectively part of the base material, in this case of the rim, changed chemically by the anodisation process.

As such it needs to be treated seriously.

We've never seen a weld failure at this point on a Eurus or Shamal rim from any cause other than impact, so the fact that the mark (which may and may not be the precursor to a failure) has appeared is troubling and it would be worth referring the case to Campagnolo NA.

They will be thorough and careful - front wheel issues, even more than almost any other issue, are treated with great dilligence because of the possible dire consequences of a front wheel failure.

I'd take the tyre and tube off and have a look at the corresponding area of the floor of the rim between the two external marks to see if there is any sign of damage in that area. The passage of the brake blocks over the braking surface can make faint indicators of damage in that area very hard to see, anything untoward will be much more obvious on the internal surfaces of the rim ...

Bottom line as far as our professional advice is concerned, though, is get it checked out by Campagnolo NA ... better to be without the wheel for a while, than to have a potentially catastrophic failure.

[jwalther]

Thanks all for the informed discussion. I took the wheel to two shops yesterday. One told me don't worry, it's purely cosmetic, the other said not to ride it without sending in to Campagnolo. I pulled the tire and pictures of the inside of the rim.

https://i.imgur.com/A0kcjUg.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/kXmpdcf.jpg?1

I plan to send the pictures to Campagnolo, and unless they tell me with certainty there's no problem, I'll ship it in for closer inspection.

[vqdriver]

fwiw, i had two sets of eurus wheels at one point, and had to rebuild a rear wheel once. it was costly and unnecessarily convoluted. i felt bad for the lbs as campy NA wasn't too interested in being helpful. short version is that campy had a replacement rim but couldn't source the right spoke kit because they had changed in the last year or two since i had bought mine. they didn't have them, and told my shop something along the lines of 'we don't supply them anymore but feel free to scour the internet for leftovers'. :rolleyes: they did provide the shop with lacing instructions which proved to be essential.

so lbs rebuilt a replacement rim with a newer (very different looking) spoke kit i had to find for them since lbs technically wasn't supposed to buy outside their supply channels. rim was pricey, spokes were obscenely expensive, lacing process was a total circus.
the repair was fine and i kept the wheels for a bit after the fix but it left a bad aftertaste tbh. i guess that's just how it is with g3 but that was it for me with proprietary wheels. "standard" hubs and spoke from then on.

in this case, i wouldn't really care if they think it's cosmetic or not, i'd want to replace the rim cuz i personally wouldn't have confidence in it. how can you know if it's just on the surface before scratching away to see the bare metal underneath?

[teleguy57]

I have no insights on your rim, but we are very fortunate to have Brit Graeme from Campag UK and Scot-heritage Oldpotatoe from the People's Republic generously share their Campagnolo expertise with us here.

Thanks to both you gents!

[jwalther]

Update. . .Campagnolo confirms (based on the pictures posted here) it's purely a cosmetic issue. Thanks again to all who contributed to the discussion.

[oldpotatoe]

Update. . .Campagnolo confirms (based on the pictures posted here) it's purely a cosmetic issue. Thanks again to all who contributed to the discussion.

Huzzah!!! Now go ride!!:)