I bought a set of planet x wheels at the end of October last year for my commuter bike. Just added up the mileage I’ve ridden on then and it’s under 700 miles as I used the bike they’re on November, December and a week in January and used another bike since.

When I bought the wheels the rear developed a bit of a rumble after less than a month but I didn’t really think much about it. The wheel has now developed over 1cm play at the rim and is unrideable. I’ve tightened the cones and can’t feel any play at the hub, the cassette is also tight with no wobble. I’ve tried the wheel on a different bike to check its not the frame and tried a different qr.

Anyone think this would be a warranty issue?

I’ll contact planet x but would rather garner opinion on it being a warranty issue or not before contacting them.

Thanks.

what do you mean wobble on the rim – is it just out of true?

No not out of true. Side to side play as though the cones were loose – but there not.

if they are cup and cone then you should have looked at ’em when they started to ‘rumble’. blithely continuing to ride a cup and cone wheel that requires maintenance is a quick way to write off the hub. it may have been a warranty thing in november, arguably, but not now. sorry.

if they’re cartridge bearings however it’s just a matter of knocking out the old and knocking in new, which is very easy, will make the wheel behave like new, and probably cost a fiver or so.

They’re not cup and cone. And you wouldn’t expect a brand new wheel to either need maintenance or need to have the cartridge bearings replaced after 700 miles.

On my usual commuter wheels – mavic aksiums, I wear the rim out before the hubs need any maintenance at all. Same with any others I’ve used for commuting.

Thought I try these wheels for a change – lesson learned.

Best practice is to contact PX FIRST before starting a public complaint “lesson learned”

Please email our team on returns@planet-x-bikes.com and they will look into it.

Its not a complaint, I was asking advice before bothering planet x with the issue. I didn’t want to claim ‘warranty issue’ if it isn’t a warranty issue.

By lesson learnt I meant that perhaps cartridge bearing wheels may not be suitable for commuting if they don’t last very long and need the bearings replaced frequently.

Thanks brant, I’ll email tomorrow when I have the order number to hand.

btw Brant I’m happy to ask the mods to pull the thread if you feel in some way it’s harming px’s reputation. That was not my intention.

Oh and this morning I ordered a set of shimano rs10 wheels to replace these, I ordered from planet x so I’m not in a strop with them or anything.

So the rim moves relative to the hub but the axle is not loose in the hub?

Yeh thats exactly right.

even £1k+ wheels can get trashed in a couple of months use in our winters especially with all the salt on the road. even more so if ridden with a little play in them.

hope you get sorted

Most odd. Can’t imagine it wouldn’t be a warranty job.

They sell lots of wheels, they can’t all do this.

I’ve tightened the cones and can’t feel any play at the hub

why i thought they were cup and cone. did you mean you feel no end float?
if a cup and cone wheel came loose early in it’s life it’s not unreasonable to pay them a little attention. these things do happen from time to time.
if cartridge bearings fail i’d just ask the vendor for some replacements. anyhow, Brant et. al. will sort you out i’m sure.

I would hold out much hope of support from Planet X regarding wheel bearings.
The rear hub bearings on my Model B wheels lasted precisely 40 hours riding before giving up the ghost. Planet X were polite but ultimately weren’t interested in helping, stating that bearings were consumable items and not covered by their warranty. I maintain that the bearings were faulty at the point of purchase and I should have resonably expected them to last for longer that 600 odd miles.
Probably wouldn’t buy from them again becuase of this.

Brant you often comment on Planet X / One posts that appear on this forum, do you have anything to add to add regarding this?

Brant you often comment on Planet X / One posts that appear on this forum, do you have anything to add to add regarding this?

I don’t have anything to add in specific cases, but do keep an eye on reported failures of all products in our returns department.

bearings were consumable items

They are.

What more do you expect on a wheelset that costs £130?

If you want awesome bearings, spend your money and buy some chris kings

My model Bs were fine when I sold them after 6 months of use.

bearings were consumable items

They are.

What more do you expect on a wheelset that costs £130?

If you want awesome bearings, spend your money and buy some chris kings

My model Bs were fine when I sold them after 6 months of use

I didn’t say that bearings weren’t consumable items. I said that I think mine failed prematurely due to an inherent defect, not a consumable issue. Planet X don’t appear to accept this however.

Brant I’ve sent an email to returns this morning.

Lets not turn this into an arguemnt about bearing life or a bitching session about planet x customer service. Brant was good enough to post on a forum thread on a Saturday, something other sellers would never do.

I’be bought lots of products from planet x and always been happy with their service.

Ooh, I’d just mailed them this morning actually for this exact reason, the missus pointed me here. I had a set of the 29er Max wheels, the front developed play within 1 ride so I sent them back. They swapped the wheel, all sounded very puzzled, new set came back good, all was well.

Another week on an the front had it’s normal play back. I thought it must just be as I was using QR, and most people buying them would use the other axle options, so I just ignored it. A month or so on and now the rear has play too.

This is only the Max wheelset I’ve had issues with, I had an old £100 Superlight (2.4kg) wheelset from them before this, and they were fantastic, were it not the weight I’d chuck these and just use them!

Using a completely standard setup, Scandal 29er, Rebas on the front, 14 stone rider, 6’6″. Never had any issue with this sort of thing before, my Hopes normally go about 2 years per set of bearings. It doesn’t seem to be the bearings, it looks like play between the end caps.

I did wonder if there was just a dodgy batch?

What more do you expect on a wheelset that costs £130?

This is rubbish too. Had a set of Crossrides last 2 years, some SLX + 717s from Merlin which are still going after 3 years. Bizarrely my On-One Superlight wheels which were £100 with a pair of Nevegals are great too, after riding both MM and SITs on them last year.

Toasty. Yes. Odd issue that. I will get Neil to have a look.

Cheers brant, if it is something as trivial as the stock bearings occationally being a bit dodgy in them. I’m fine just popping these out and replacing myself. They’ve not really been out in any brutal weather though, so they certainly shouldn’t have worn down though.

Hi Alastair,

Thank you for your e mail.

All wheels will have a certain amount of “play” in them.

Well that sorts that then I guess. All my other wheels are knackered, the hubs don’t have any play! Really can’t be bothered with this any more, sorting some new bearings and seeing what it does.

Last time I sent my wheels off they sat there for over a week without anyone bothering to clamp them in a frame and wiggle, followed by the promise of some wheel expert coming in, to examine the simple cartridge bearing hubs. The expert came in and didn’t know what was wrong, the issue lay somewhere within the complex workings of the little metal tube and the bearings poked in the end.

There are some Zipps i remember that have play – something to do with not loading the bearings a certain way so they spin better.

Might be a similar situation.

Just for balance my Planet X wheels (model B) are still fine after 2000+ miles commuting over some horrible roads and I weight 14 stone.

I don’t mind to be honest, as long as they don’t fall apart during MM or SITs, or get as bad as the OPs. I’ll try and swap the bearings out, the hubs actually look quite precisely made.

Just get a bit sick of everyone sounding shocked via email, about this being:

A) completely normal in all wheels
B) completely abnormal, a one off that no one has ever see before

Just for balance my Planet X wheels (model B) are still fine after 2000+ miles commuting over some horrible roads and I weight 14 stone.

So are my On-One Superlights on Reetard rims after a year of muddy rides 🙂

Maybe if you were a bit more specific and said it’s X mm of movement at the rim they’d be more helpful and understand it’s not a ‘little bit’.

Must make setting the brakes up so you get very little lever movement but no rubbing a nightmare 🙁

EMail sent.

I think it’s probably sorted now, the returns department asked for them back. I’m going to try and swap the bearings at this end instead first, it sounds like the issue the other 2 on here had. I’ve got drifts and things so it was an easy job last time, does anyone know what size they take so I can get some ordered today prior to getting home?

It does just feel like the end caps aren’t quite preloading them properly. Given they were fine when they came, it must be a very small margin for error, hopefully some different brand bearings will sort it.

Don’t mean to sound too negative, lovely wheels aside from that and the Scandal they’re on is absolutely fantastic 🙂