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Re: Velobuild VB-R-177 I'm sorry to post this here but I can't continue enjoying my Velobuild bike since the rear wheel (not the tire) blew in a downhill at 55KPH. I managed to save it since I was already on the brakes and it was straight line.

Bike and wheels have only been used for 350Kms on asphalt (I'm around 85Kg these days, and use 90PSI)

The wheelset was also built by Velobuild, so no, I cannot recommend them

Not only I'm concerned about the front wheel that is still there and a catastrophic failure won't be as easy to handle.

WARRANTY?
Furthermore, This happened 10 days ago, I collected the pictures and send them to Velobuild, they said it was caused by an accident that never happened (the bike is in pristine condition and I sent pictures from both sides).
If you check the pictures, the cracks start at the nipples.

After 8 days and more pictures and silence radio, they don't honor any sort of warranty... They are barely offering half price on a rim (same "quality" plus I'd need to build it/get it built).
 
I'm bewildered: Half price of a rim vs the chances for me to die/go to the hospital.

So Velobuild, is adding to the poor rim quality or wheel construction, an abysmal after sales service.
June 15, 2022, 02:20:20 PM 		1
Re: Velobuild VB-R-177
Quote from: pearl on June 16, 2022, 02:49:31 PM
@slosada I hope this gets resolved, but I think you'd be better off starting your own thread with your experiences.

My bb86 to GXP has not creaked at all. I only have 158 miles on mine, so take that with a grain of salt if you want, but I would say its A+.
I agree with you but, since I had participated exclusively in this thread, I thought it would be good to keep all together.
But yeah, I will open a thread.

I find no pleasure claiming a warranty, less so bashing a company from which I still have the frame and parts.
Also, there must be a lesson learned for all: Don't take the quality and warranty for granted
June 16, 2022, 03:26:44 PM 		1
My experience with Velobuild wheels and requesting after sales support. Due to the popular request, I'm opening a new thread on my experience with Velobuild wheels

I bought the frame VB-R-177 and they offered to customize the wheels as per my liking: Sapim CX Ray and Bitex 312, for extra $$$
The offered wheels were 50/27 tubeless, and the only 27mm are the gravel/CX.
Chris told me:  "we suggest 25-32 tires"

That was a bad idea that ended delaying the delivery of the frame and wheels: 80 days from payment to reception
The LBS assembled the bike and put the tires on (GP5000 TL with butyl tubes)

After 350Kms, in 7 short rides, all in paved roads, a catastrophic failure in the rear rim happened:
On a 10% downhill, at ~55KPH aprox, we heard like gunshot, and my rear wheel started navigating.  I was able to save it because it's a straight line descent and I was already on the brakes.

I was lucky it was the rear wheel, not the front, I was lucky it was a straight road, that I was somehow prepared to handle, and that someone with a van gave a 15km lift to the parking lot where we started the ride (otherwise, I had to wait from my clubmates to finish their ride, change  clothes, load the bikes and come in my rescue).
With a reborn feeling, I paid for the beers.

WHEEL INSPECTION
The rim blew open
You can see 2 cracks starting at the spoke nipple, one rides straight on the edge of the deep profile
The tire is in perfect condition
The rim edges in the cracked spot are scratched were probably the spot that was skidding when I was braking

WARRANTY PROCESS
Now it comes the second point: Warranty from Velobuild.  I wanted to do this privately, friendly and honestly.
I sent the first pictures taken on the parking lot to Chris and explained.

He asked for more pictures.
I sent 10 more: Both sides of the bike, with the broken wheel. A close up of the wheel with the tire. Both sides of the wheel. Removed the tire and pictures of the barcode and more closeups of the broken section.

Chris said looks like and accident, can I have the pictures of the bike as of today.
I replied, check the pictures, the bike has the broken wheel and is in mint condition, not even one scratch... not even one in the paint, handlbar, levers, saddle or pedals.
I also told him, check the photo metadata... All pictures taken in ~20 minutes

SILENCE for one week.
I followed up and Chris said "our engineer said it's accident or big impact". He offered a rim at half price.
EXCUSE ME... WHAT?  I could have died and you are asking me to pay more for a rim and then have the wheel built? That is insulting, and I have no trust on the quality of the rims

Right now I'm at paypal dispute... They said a car run over the wheel (yeah, right, and no broken or bent spokes!)

LESSONS
Couple of lessons for me, and for whoever wants to learn:
1. Check your carbon rims as often as you can. Don't take the quality for granted
2. After sales support and warranty claims with Velobuild are not smooth processes.

3. What would have happened if, for different circumstances, you had some scratches on the paint or marks on the saddle?  Doesn't the warranty count anymore?

My best guess, due to the cracks from the spoke nipple: Bad wheel construction, which is fairly probable as they don't usually work with these Sapim spokes nor Bitex hubs. That or the carbon rim is very weak
June 16, 2022, 09:04:33 PM 		1
Re: My experience with Velobuild wheels and requesting after sales support. Velobuild it's demonstrating to have the dumbest customer service.
To avoid paying a single wheel I'm sure they're loosing many future customers
No one will buy velobuild after reading your experience and the 168 thread

(I've got a 168 as well, really not satisfied)
June 17, 2022, 02:00:30 AM 		1
Re: Velobuild 177 vs 218 Unless you put both bikes in a windtunnel, you will never know which one is more aero. Pick the frame you like the most.
June 17, 2022, 08:44:46 AM 		1
Re: My experience with Velobuild wheels and requesting after sales support. I have an order with VB and I have really not been happy about their inability to directly answer questions. They deflect and delay. I was given a tracking number for my order but no matter what I try, after a week it still does not work. No item found. Velo Build insists the frame has been shipped and the number is correct.

I have purchased from Workswell before and Light Bicycle. They are far, far better to deal with.
June 19, 2022, 01:58:53 AM 		1
Re: Velobuild VB-R-218 Yep. That's mine.

First off thanks to all the regular posters on this forum for all the knowledge they share!

I was considering a 177 back in April, but when they introduced the 218, I decided to give that a shot instead.

I ordered the XL frame on 4-18-22, they shipped on 5/6 and I got the frame on 5/12. I was pretty pleased with that speed.
I went with matte black, which maybe helped getting it a little quicker.

Wheels are elite SLT 50mm deep 29mm wide and the groupset is Sensa Empire.
No issues with the frame, other than the challenges of getting the cables through the integrated bars.  Being my first build, I didn't think it was too bad.

I've only had time to get about 30 miles in so far, but no problem to report yet. I did put a little tape on my seat post, so I can check to make sure it's not slipping over time, as that's been an issue on other velobuild frames.

My other bike is an aluminum endurance frame, so this should be a lot lighter and quicker. The bathroom scale has the 218at just under 19.5 lbs, my endurance bike is 25 lbs.
June 19, 2022, 08:10:41 PM 		1
Re: My experience with Velobuild wheels and requesting after sales support. I have a story to contribute as well.

I ordered their wheelset (VB-RC-50 25mm tubeless) for my first build. At the time, I had never done a TL setup before and asked Chris if I needed rim tape thinking maybe the TL sku for the wheelset made it unnecessary.

Chris confirmed that I did not need rim tape. I used a floor pump and pumped the tire to about 60psi before there was a loud bang, carbon shards flew, and the rim wall delaminated. I was shocked.

I assumed I had done something wrong. I went to an LBS and explained what had happened, and asked them to setup my other wheel TL. If all went well, I would simply order another wheel to replace the one I had presumably messed up.

Unfortunately, the LBS pumped it and it exploded again sending one of their employees to the hospital (non-serious injury but another shock to me).

Clearly, the deep section cavity cannot take pressurization. On my ICANN wheelset, this is impossible as there's clearly a hole that would release build up if any leaked past the rim tape.

The final disappointment was Chris being unwilling to give me a refund and instead trying to get me to accept new rims and rebuild using the leftover spokes and hub. I kept demanding a refund until Chris stopped responding. I did a chargeback but was so sick of the situation that I didn't follow through with the back-and-forth and see what their lame excuse was.

Fast forward a year later, the R-168 frame has been great to me. I wasn't aware of the general negative sentiment (one year ago, VB was known as having the best post-sales support) and assumed I was a one-off. I followed up on my old thread with Chris asking if he'd honor a refund if I ordered another frame (I also needed a refund for the bottle cages that never came). He agreed but he refunded only one wheel (the cheaper one!) of the wheelset.

The new frame has worked well. I paired with an ICANN wheelset again. I'm still not sure if one should use rim tape with the VB wheelset or not, but either way, it's a serious design flaw for the rim to delaminate at moderate pressure.
June 21, 2022, 02:20:39 PM 		1
Re: Carbonda Cfr 1056 Hi All, just received my 1056 frame today. See attached pic. Havn't taken any weights etc. Not sure on the colour tbh. It's RAL3032 metallic with logos in RAL 7016 (which looks a bit too dark). I'm sure I'll grow to like it but right now I wish I went for a brighter colour. To compensate, at the same time my 707 frameset arrived (in the same box) in RAL 1003 (Signal Yellow), and that looks awesome!

Won't be able to build them up for a while a have a few bikes already in the workshop.

If anyone has any q's about the process or weights then let me know.
June 25, 2022, 06:04:17 AM 		1
Re: Velobuild Paint Finish Quality It is what you would expect it to be for $50-$80.
It’s way cheaper than getting it painted professionally afterwards.
It’s way better than most of us can do DIY.

For my experience, all things considered, my paint job was very good for the price.
The color was wrong, but it’s grown on me. They got the pattern 95% correct and made a minor decal error.  I prefer it over a matte or glossy black frame, and wouldn’t pay the 5 to 10x more (In my locality) to get it done professionally.

If you are picky or OCD, you’ll notice all the imperfections. If you are like me, you’ll notice them but quickly forget them.  As with most things in life, if you go out in search of problems, you will find them

Do:
Use Pantone Color codes
Stick with relatively simple designs
Provide picture examples if you can
Double-check proofs
Factor in some imperfections in your expectations, as there is no turning back once you receive it.
(Mine had a decal error. Wanted it to say “Mk. I”. Received “Mk. L”)

Do not:
Ask for custom Colours (I made this mistake)
Request an elaborate pattern (I kind of made this mistake too)
Provide too many emails and instructions (I also made this mistake)
Assume they’ll nail your interpretation on the proof

Expect:
-Shades, potentially, to be slightly off from expectation.  Especially with special colours like pearlescents, neons, chameleon, etc.  Seems to happen commonly.  Could be due to lighting, screen vs real life difference, or mixing. No idea.
-Job to be more or less clean, but with some drips and/or orange peels.

July 05, 2022, 08:43:04 AM 		1