Pacenti Disappointment and November Shoutout

[Wasatch]

I was surprised to find that my Pacenti SL23 V2's had a bunch of cracks near the nipples. A bit of a disappointment, considering that the rims were 20 months old. Even more frustrating is the fact that given the widespread issues with both the V1's and V2's, Pacenti really should have extended their warranty period on these rims, IMO. I won't be buying another Pacenti rim.





Thankfully, the guys over at November Bicycles, where I purchased the wheels from, understand customer service. Dave was excellent to work with and we were able to work out an "out of warranty" replacement cost that was more than fair. I disassembled the wheels, mailed him the hubs, and before I even received USPS confirmation that they had received the hubs, I get an email from November saying that the new wheels have already been built up and shipped back to me!

So now I'm the proud owner of a new set of the AForce AL33's, which are mounted up and ready to go. There's a lot of negativity online, so I just wanted to give a shout out when things go right and companies "get it."

[Matthew]

Give us some info on the bike please! That's beautiful.

[m4rk540]

My name is Wasatch and I'm a paid non-celebrity product endorser!

[Wasatch]

Originally Posted by m4rk540

My name is Wasatch and I'm a paid non-celebrity product endorser!

Who you callin' a non-celebrity?!?!? LOL

[fignon's barber]

You got 20 months out of the Pacenti's? You're lucky. I got 2 months.
I second your November recommendation. I broke a November Rail 52 rim in a crash last year. It happened on a Saturday. I sent the hubs back to him and received the rebuilt wheel back in time for a race the following sunday. Payback kudos to Dave.

[saab2000]

My Pacenti wheels have all been good. One was built by Southern Wheelworks and the others by Ergott. I think the builders do have something to do with it.

That said, I hope the new ones work out for you. It definitely stinks when products don't meet our expectations.

[m4rk540]

The consequences of being trendy and caring about 20 grams per rim.

[weiwentg]

Ahem ... your pics don't appear to be functional.

Going to play devil's advocate here. You went for the AForce Al33s, which are a very interesting rim ... and also an unproven one. They were funded via Kickstarter. IIRC, the company is Dutch (but I don't know which factory built the wheels).

So far, the Aforces are very new. Even relatively poor rims don't fail that often, right? It did take a while, as I recall, for the problem rate with the Pacenti V1s to become apparent - heck, my set of V1s, bought in 2012, are still going very strong (front rim has that annoying squeak, presumably from the rim sleeve, but no cracks, rims are doing well; albeit I ride a lot less than I'd like). So, Aforce could also have dropped the ball on its rims, and they're not based in the US. And these rims came out in, what, late 2016? If their underlying failure rate is the same as the SL23 v1s, the community won't know this for a while ... and you, as a single consumer, are pretty unlikely to know it. Remember, if I didn't lurk on the Paceline forum, or if I hadn't met an LBS owner who gave up on Pacenti, I wouldn't know that the SL23s were prone to problems.

None of that is to bash Aforce. I wish them all the best. When my Pacentis give way, I'll probably get a pair of Flo30s, but I'll get a pair of Aforces if they've come down in price. Assuming reliability, of course.

[loimpact]

Anybody else not seeing the pictures?

[Wasatch]

Originally Posted by weiwentg

Ahem ... your pics don't appear to be functional.

Going to play devil's advocate here. You went for the AForce Al33s, which are a very interesting rim ... and also an unproven one. They were funded via Kickstarter. IIRC, the company is Dutch (but I don't know which factory built the wheels).

So far, the Aforces are very new. Even relatively poor rims don't fail that often, right? It did take a while, as I recall, for the problem rate with the Pacenti V1s to become apparent - heck, my set of V1s, bought in 2012, are still going very strong (front rim has that annoying squeak, presumably from the rim sleeve, but no cracks, rims are doing well; albeit I ride a lot less than I'd like). So, Aforce could also have dropped the ball on its rims, and they're not based in the US. And these rims came out in, what, late 2016? If their underlying failure rate is the same as the SL23 v1s, the community won't know this for a while ... and you, as a single consumer, are pretty unlikely to know it. Remember, if I didn't lurk on the Paceline forum, or if I hadn't met an LBS owner who gave up on Pacenti, I wouldn't know that the SL23s were prone to problems.

None of that is to bash Aforce. I wish them all the best. When my Pacentis give way, I'll probably get a pair of Flo30s, but I'll get a pair of Aforces if they've come down in price. Assuming reliability, of course.

I hear ya. And of course I agree that AForces could have trouble, too. I don't believe I said that I expected the AL33's to be perfect. But I do hope they last longer than a pathetic 20 months.

[Wasatch]

Originally Posted by loimpact

Anybody else not seeing the pictures?

Not sure why. I'm using Google Photos and followed the directions (I think).

EDIT: Just changed it over to Flickr. Let me know if you still can't see them.

[R3awak3n]

Originally Posted by weiwentg

Ahem ... your pics don't appear to be functional.

Going to play devil's advocate here. You went for the AForce Al33s, which are a very interesting rim ... and also an unproven one. They were funded via Kickstarter. IIRC, the company is Dutch (but I don't know which factory built the wheels).

So far, the Aforces are very new. Even relatively poor rims don't fail that often, right? It did take a while, as I recall, for the problem rate with the Pacenti V1s to become apparent - heck, my set of V1s, bought in 2012, are still going very strong (front rim has that annoying squeak, presumably from the rim sleeve, but no cracks, rims are doing well; albeit I ride a lot less than I'd like). So, Aforce could also have dropped the ball on its rims, and they're not based in the US. And these rims came out in, what, late 2016? If their underlying failure rate is the same as the SL23 v1s, the community won't know this for a while ... and you, as a single consumer, are pretty unlikely to know it. Remember, if I didn't lurk on the Paceline forum, or if I hadn't met an LBS owner who gave up on Pacenti, I wouldn't know that the SL23s were prone to problems.

None of that is to bash Aforce. I wish them all the best. When my Pacentis give way, I'll probably get a pair of Flo30s, but I'll get a pair of Aforces if they've come down in price. Assuming reliability, of course.

well the pacentis are just too damn light. The SLs are not the only pacentis that cracked, there are other models and all them them too light. The Aforces could suffer from similar fate but to start they are not made so light so thats a good thing.


There are other rims like the aforce out now, like the boyd altamont ceramics which I have and have been a great rim so far.

Also the new pacenti rims, the forzas, seem to be better too and they are not as light as the SL23s.

[Wasatch]

Originally Posted by Matthew

Give us some info on the bike please! That's beautiful.

Thanks! Just had it built by a local builder here in Salt Lake City. Matt Nelson at Saltair Cycles. Columbus Life and True Temper S3. Loving it so far!

[Wasatch]

Originally Posted by m4rk540

The consequences of being trendy and caring about 20 grams per rim.

In my case, I wasn't all that interested in the weight (in fact, these new Aforces I bought to replace the Pacentis are downright portly at 1,666 grams without cassette and skewers. I was more interested in going tubeless, and Pacentis were presented as a good choice for tubeless.

[makoti]

Originally Posted by loimpact

Anybody else not seeing the pictures?

Only of the Pacenti rims.
I have a few sets of those rims & so far they've been great (V1). Were the wheels built without nipple washers? Low spoke count? As I recall, these were the issues with the cracking.