Last Saturday I worked on two sets of PlanetX / On One wheels for a friend, Lee. I am airing his dirty laundry in public because I am appalled by the company’s attitude towards him; presumably they treat many other customers the same.

The front and rear Planet X AL30 road wheels suffered massive play within 9 months (around 2500 miles of use), he reported this by email months ago to their customer service and was told to dismantle the hubs himself and to buy and fit new bearings…on nine month old wheels!

We visited them one weekend ages ago hoping that they would be better face to face and we were told that they didn’t know what the bearings were, on their own branded product! We were told to go to City Bearings to buy some once we had dismantled the hubs to find out the numbers. The wheels sat unusable and untouched until last weekend. I only dealt with the rear hub but the front is in a similar state.

Now the story of the On One XC wheels, which I find even more shocking, the wheels came on a full build Whippet that he purchased brand new from On One last autumn. He was experiencing hub slip and bearing feel and wanted to investigate so tried to remove the cassette, only the first two sprockets would come off so he asked me if I’d have a look. I dismantled the rear hub and one or two of the pawls in the freehub had visibly worn out engagement points. The cassette would not budge and I didn’t want to risk damaging things so we drove the lot to PlanetX at Magna.

We explained the situation to the sales assistants and they brought up the original sales invoice, it was well under a year since Lee bought the mountain bike, he still had the original tyre on the wheel! One of the assistants commented that he thought it was fair enough for bearings to wear out within a year and that it didn’t seem like a problem that the bearings in a hub might wear out before a tyre did. They also looked at the pawls and the lad said that they looked fine, in spite of visible wear. They mentioned crash replacement discount too! Crash replacement! Why did they suggest crash damage?

We left the lot with them and after a weeks email tennis they say;

They will replace the bearings in the road wheels for £30 which they claim is what it would cost them. Yes you might argue they are now just over a year old, but the problem was reported long before this.

They have apparently removed the cassette and say that there’s nothing wrong with the rear hub.

They said the cassette would have dug in because the locking ring was not done up…they fitted it when supplying the bike and it was apparently very tight when Lee undid it.

So, for the last week Lee has been without the use of his XC bike and having to ride his singlespeed which is an On One Gimp! How’s that for brand loyalty, you’d think they’d treat him better.

He’s got his wheels back now and they haven’t even put the rear hub back together to check the freehub!

must save a packet buying cheap items from them with such great support.

I have px stuff – but accept that they carry next to no spares and dont seem to know much about whats inside their outsourced kit.

bearings are consumables and not covered by warrenty in most(if not all) cases but are a standard item carried by most bearing shops.

“One of the assistants commented that he thought it was fair enough for bearings to wear out within a year and that it didn’t seem like a problem that the bearings in a hub might wear out before a tyre did”

Reasonable enough for bearings to wear out before a tire tbh unless ridden in the dust of arizona only. – even more so on a seldom used bike that get left for long periods after its gotten wet – like many bikes used in the uk.

maybe stick to a brand like trek or giant who actually have a pretty good spares back up for their stuff

but even with your side of the story im not really all that sure that anything other than the cassette eating the freehub is a planet x/on-one warrenty issue – the rest seems like fair wear and tear.

reminds me of the chap who bought a brand new santa cruz blur XC – then soloed the strathpuffer the next week and wrecked every bearing on the bike , the whole drive train and then brought it back complaining “it should have lasted longer”

imo whenever you buy hubs/headsets/bottom brackets etc with bearings in, if you ride your bike in UK conditions then you WILL at some point need to replace the bearings, this time is widely variable.

i think at least bike shops manufacturers should highlight users of this and offer spares or information though but it does bug me when people go on about their bearings and pads and consumables..not lasting >12 months.

Ive seen these things die in one ride.

ive changed bearings in my hopes and mavics with no issues but no doubt the time will come when my PX bearings need it, at which point ill probably rant if replacements arent readily available.

My AL30 bearings lasted 4 months of winter riding but bearings are cheap and easy to replace so I didn’t see an issue.

2500 miles in 9 months? seems fair that the bearings might be knackered

I have knackered 2 freehubs in a year single speeding they dont last forever either.

2500 miles… thats good going

Really? for bearings?

Katie’s got a set of hope’s on her commuter bike that must have 10x that mileage on them. c5k miles a year in all weathers for 5 years. Still on the original bearings. Not used off road, not jetwashed, but still running smooth enough.

agree with simons, my hopes have been on my mtb for 6+ years and keep on trucking in all kinds of terrain, and its been dragged around on the back of a car for a few months straight and still are ok.
that doesnt mean i’m disagreeing with other above, quite the opposite, because lets face it, you get what you pay for.
buy cheap, expect cheap.
you dont expect cheap clothes to last all year use, rain and shine, without problems, why wheels?

I have a set of campagnolo wheels that must have done upwards of 50000 miles by now. Ridden in all weathers and the bearings are still as smooth as the day i bought them. Just recently had to replace the pawls and a pawl spring but that is it.

I’m a big fan of most of what PX/OO do, however i really don’t rate there wheels, and i’ve had a few sets, at the end of the day they are cheap for a reason, cheap wheels are fitted with cheap bearings, were you expecting SKF bearings in wheels at that price?

I’ve come to the conclusion that wheels is one area that it’s worth spending the extra on, which is why all three of my PX/Oo bikes aren’t fitted with their wheels!

Lol are we really comparing hope hubs to a set of al30 wheels ?

2500 miles for the cheap bearings (they’re going to be cheap when the whole wheelset doesn’t cost much!) to last seems fair enough to me – and it really is a simple job to dismantle the hub and replace them. I replaced the ones in my old Model B wheelset (older version of the AL30) with some nice SKF ones and they lasted for aaaaages.

I’ve had the cassette chew into the freehub body of innumerable hubs before now – from the cheaper PX end of the spectrum right up to DT240s. It happens. You can, once you’ve got the cassette off, tidy up the burrs with a file and carry on for quite some time before worrying that it might be time to replace it.

(Not sure why they suggested a loose cassette, it can happen even if you’ve been all “Hulk” on the lockring…)

I’ve found px’s customer service and eye for what they consider acceptable to be pretty shoddy. But I’ll happily buy their cheaper stuff, like wheels, for training and commuting, and just accept i’ll be changing the bearings in a few months. But i wouldn’t buy anything pricey from them, as if I’m spending big i want to know i’ll get great customer service.

“buy cheap, expect cheap.” I go with that.

But the beauty of cartridge bearing type hubs, you can replace them with a better grade bearings. 😉

Sorry Rob, I’ve had a quick read of your post and I don’t think your “friend” has been treated badly at all.

9 months, 2.5K miles and the bearings have gone. Unless Lee weighs as much as a gerbil and rides on fields of cotton wool, I’d expect this – especially on a budget wheel set.

A lot of it’s going to depend on where it’s ridden and how it’s treated, how can you expect the shop or manufacturer to treat this as a warranty claim? I don’t wish to offend but think you are not being reasonable*.

There is an element of buy right or buy twice to this but I’ve seen more expensive kit wear quickly as well so YMMV/beware of the internet and all that…

I’m surprised by the responses, they are cheap but I thought this was always claimed to be because of buying in huge bulk and selling directly to the public.

If people think that’s a fair life for bearings so be it, I wasn’t comparing them to high end stuff, my opinion was based on having owned;
-Campag Mirage Hubs on CXP22 rims did 7000 under me and came on a used bike, they were still good when I sold the bike on.
-Shimano Deore on D521 did a similar mileage to those above.

Regardless of the road wheel, the mountain bike wheel has a slipping freehub that they haven’t done anything about that either.

My campag wheels are khamsins btw – which can be had for £105 for a set fr and rr.

I snapped the aluminium axel on my Hope Pro 2 rear hub the other week. Took the wheel to Hope as I live near by and not only did they replace the axel for free, they also replaced the pawls and springs as they said they were a bit worn.

I like Hope.

Saying that, my mate has some On-One 29er wheels on his Inbred and they seem to be holding up ok.

Don’t both the Campag & Deore hubs use “proper” loose bearings, rather than cartridge? I imagine loose bearinged (new word!) hubs at the same price bracket would last longer, it’s certainly been the case with wheels I’ve owned.

Mates Soul roadbike wheels, the bearings were really knacked after 6 months. Soul took them back , replaced FOC. Smoothie headset 12 dry rides old, duff bearings, not interested at On One. My last purchase from them , even having bought 5 plus frames and was in the market for a carbon road bike. Its not necessarily cost, its the common sense and customer relations that make it work. I do like my Dolan Hercules road bike mind you 😉

On One put a crack in the rear end and a massive gouge in the top tube of a friend’s frame when it was back with them for warranty repair due to wonky rear end on a new frame. They REFUSED to accept it was them and he had to pay a substantial amount for a new chainstay. So crap products coupled with crap customer service.

Bunch of muppets who will weasel out of anything at the slightest opportunity.

GB

I’d always had good service from On One till I tried to make a warranty claim on one of their in-house products. It seems like when the buck stops elsewhere, they’re fine, but when they end up picking up the bill the policy is lie and evade.

Simple enough answer, like Dave Hinde and Mark Anthony Bikes they’ve proved themselves untrustworthy. It’s probably safe enough to buy 3rd party stuff like forks etc from them but I don’t much feel like lining their pockets, can only recommend the same.

Twinklydave – Campag Khamsin use cartridge bearings.

A bit worried now as I need to send a seat back to PX
As for your mates hubs I have to agree with everyone else bearings are never covered under warranty unless under 4 weeks old as I say to every customer where I work warranty does not include most moving parts every hub even hope have bearings wearing out apart from Chris king never seen a broken one of these.
I think customer services should be better there as its a consumer market out there so no company can affordto loose customers

Seems they have taken up superstar/fruit/neil customer service training recently.

Bearings will invariably fail due to contamination. I know of motor bearings, which spin at 2000 rpm for 10 years without fail. These use little to no grease, although nothing fancy named. What causes them failing is contamination. If you look at bearings on a bike, they are ridden in wet muddy conditions. Now for a part to be designed and fit for purpose a manufacturer ‘should’ design the item to live a reasonable lifespan relative to the purpose of the component. I dont think 9 months or 2500 miles is actually excessive, if the item is made correctly. My argument with On One, wasnt the fact I had to source a better set of bearings which involved using seals in them rather than nothing in one end and a plastic cover in the other, but that it wasnt designed for its intended use. Sealed bearings should be that. A self contained bearing with rubber seals to prevent ingress of contaminants. Whatever the argument, On One seem to gain negativity from not sensibly approaching the warranty issues people claim.

I’ve bought a lot of their stuff over the years but there do seem to be a lot of horror stories on customer service of late. A chap at work bought a carbon road bike from them a month or so ago and after a few rides noticed a massive dent in the chainstay which looked a lot like a moulding cockup and was clearly a warranty return job.

On contacting PX he was first told “it’s supposed to be like that”. As this was clearly bollocks he sent some photos was then told “it’ll probably be fine, it’s under warranty for two years anyway so we’ll replace it if it breaks”. After pointing out that having it break under him on the road would not be much fun and playing the legal liability card, they finally agreed to replace it.

To be fair, they did the right thing in the end but only under protest and it’d certainly make me think twice about buying anything own brand from them again.

Sealed bearings should be that. A self contained bearing with rubber seals to prevent ingress of contaminants

A minor point but ‘sealed bearings’ are sealed to keep the grease in rather than contaminants out. Ultimately you do get what you pay for but this still seems poor.