Need a bit of advice on what to do. Recently purchased some wheels off superstar…stans flow on there own brand switch evo hub. Rode one trail on them and all the spokes unwound themselves to the point where they where rattling so I had to get off and walk home. Got them tensioned at local bike shop where the guy said he thought the builder had made a few key errors and they where not the best. Rode again…..15 mins later did exactly the same thing, luckily walked back to the car again without damaging the rims. Superstar reluctantly agreed to look at them….they informed me there is nothing wrong with them, but I am demanding a refund as they are obviously “not fit for purpose”. The thing is…….this was 3 weeks ago and they wont answer the phone or respond to my emails any more?? Spoke to the guy on the sales desk before they got them and all I can say is….what a complete jerk that guy is! stuck without wheels…..hence stuck without bike. Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated. Anyone else experienced this shocking customer service from those goons?

Anyone else experienced this shocking customer service from those goons?

Oh lord, questions like that around these parts is just inviting trouble.

Before the klu klux susperstar klan arrive – google letter before action and Form N1 and also SOGSA, then do yer’sen a favour and learn yourself something about basic consumer law and small claims and get on with it.

I believe it’s terrible form by sugdenr to post up such a balanced response before anyone has had the chance to post an octopus photo or use the phrase ‘robbing ginger **** crab’. This place ain’t what it used to be.

Mate of mine took some SS wheels to the alps, we ended up spending much of our holiday by the bike repair van in Les Lindarets. He said much the same thing. No recompense was ever forthcoming. Another friend has a set of SS wheels that have been problem free, and are still true and tight after 3 yrs.

Here’s the nub : I have never heard anyone ever give an account of getting an easy or pleasing outcome from SS’s warranty process. They are always told it’s fine/its your own fault/that’s supposed to happen/you have used the product incorrectly.

Don’t get me wrong, I love SS and all my bikes have something SS on them, but I limit what I buy from them for this reason. Never buy anything for more than 40 quid simply put, or with more moving parts than a pedal.

Its a shame but for this reason their name is mud in many circles.

I dont see how if they were rebuild at lbs they came loose unless they were rebuilt loose?

What’s nice is that if you search for “octopron” on google image search, dezb’s image is one of the first

My thoughts as well how come they came loose after lbs I have a set of superstar road wheels and never had a problem with them a mate hallways uses lock tight when building whhels I never have it sounds like your lbs just tighten end the spokes is didn’t tension them then flex the rim and pretension at least twice idvtake them to another lbs somewhere that actually builds loads of wheels as for superstars warantys I’m glad I ain’t had any problems with any of there products and I have at
Least one on each of my 3 bikes

I nearly bought the same wheels from SS a few weeks back. Decided not to. Shame you’ve had such bad luck, hope you get it sorted.

To redress the balance I’ve bought plenty from them, including a pair of wheels. Those have been ridden and raced dh and still straight as a die.

If you had them retrued and tensioned by another mechanic who complained of the previous builders standards and then they went loose again I’d say the second mechanic was questionable too.

My route if you fail to get a result is to progress through sales of goods act but remember you’ve had another mechanic dabble unsuccessfully with them rather then sending them back to SS for their free re true etc. I’d say be prepared for slopey shoulders

I bought a pair of crests on switch hubs and the rear undid itself in the first few metres of riding too, pinging away merrily. Front is fine though. Rear is currently sitting in the cupboard. There were loads of comments saying the same thing on their website reviews but of course they all got removed.

Don’t get me wrong, I love SS

But why?

The bit I don’t understand is, why does it recur if it’s an initial build issue? I’ve had bad wheels, a rebuild sorts it, and it’s all fairly standard bits…

But your story is very like a mate’s, he handled it badly which muddied the waters and made things less clear cut but new wheels came unravelled, he returned them and was told that for his extreme riding he needed the downhill wheels. That’d be Glentress, incidentally.

But most people i know who’ve got their wheels are very happy- I spent a bit of time poking at another xc set and tbh the build was as good as you could want, and he hammered those without any problems. It’s a bit odd.

It’s called Gnar-tress for a reason you know 😉

My 2p….1 set of DH wheels, 2 sets of SS hubs on Mavic 719s (built by Superstar), 4 pairs of pedals and assorted other bits n pieces – never one problem.

However, it doesn’t look like their build quality is wildly inconsistent.

I have a set of Flows on Switch from Superstar and they’ve been given a good pounding for the last 6 months, with zero problems. Bad luck.

It doesn’t excuse bad customer service though, maybe they need a competitor to make them up their game.

I am also curious how the LBS didn’t put it right??

But why?

BBs, Pedals, Grips (oh the Excel grips – like gnar sex for my hands), brake pads, brake hoses & fitting kits… for those things they’re great. In part, for anything which they have made for them and don’t assemble themselves, and for anything where I won’t mind writing it off if somat goes awry (hasn’t yet)… Had many years of good, colour coordinated, quickly delivered bits and bobs from them, so if it happens I’ll still be better off that if I hadn’t used them. But no faith in their returns/warranty process at all.

I am also curious how the LBS didn’t put it right??

this is a regular scenario though. I wonder what spokes they use, and if they come loose do they loose the tightness of the thread so can’t ever truly be retightened*

*I have no idea, just thinking outloud here, but it is the same story we keep hearing on the wheels, and same as I’ve seen happen first hand.

I’ve had a free hub issue with my first set of SS wheels and it was sorted pretty rapid, which is why I have bought another set from them.

Sapim Race spokes and un-named brass nipples usually, on the cheaper sets. D-Lights and the like available on the more expensive ones.

I have a hunch that sometimes a mechanic might not put their all into sorting out a set of wheels that were clearly bought online and incorrectly built.

Otherwise the reliable route to cheap wheels would be SS plus retention by LBS

To fair to Phil Corleys they happily rebuild by badly built Dave Hinde wheels. The were fine after that

the local builder is well known for being a good one…Ive never built wheels so cant comment to much but he told me that the incorrect spoke length etc had be used throughout so they would inevitably come loose. Ive written on their facebook site now and they magically responded but also lied about how long theyve had them and also commented about him being in the office all night sorting out problems when he could be out riding his bike……..sympathy?? I think not!

and surely having a wheel re tensioned should void a warranty if its the actually initial build which is the problem?

shouldnt*

OP suggests it was retensioned only, others might be reading it as rebuilt?

Again, muddies the waters- they can point at the other party and say “They must have ****ed it up when they were fixing it”.

My own Superstar fun… Got a KS dropper post. It didn’t work properly from new, very sticky. Use it a bit, break it in, they said. Fair enough. Didn’t get any better. Service it, they said. OK, serviced it. Still exactly the same. Sent it back. “You caused the problem when you serviced it”. Yep, the problem I was trying to fix travelled back in time from when I serviced it, and affected the post 2 months earlier. That’s some bad servicing!

Icing on the cake was that the returned post still didn’t work! To be fair, they sorted it on the second attempt, and it’s been brilliant since, and it’s funny looking at it now. But that’s what they’re like.

Same thing hapened with my SS Crest build, rear lost all tension in a very short period of time. I got the mechanic at work to sort them out and he wasnt impressed by the build.
SS said I could send them back for retensioning and did get a bit mardy when I told them the mechanic reckoned they werent built right, not what I expect from a brand new wheelset. Since they were rebuilt at work theyve been fine.

A couple years back I bought a stans flow rim built onto a nukeproof hub. I went straight out to Morzine and spent pretty much the end of every day at the van in Les Linderets or in another bike shop getting them rebuilt. Total mare….
I was told various things from bad build(so why did they keep coming loose when rebuilt?) To the fact that flows don’t have eyelets on the rim so tension is less so can come loose.

I don’t know the answer to be honest but they kept coming loose, even after I returned them to the lbs where I originally bought and got them built. I ended up just tightening them myself, not particularly knowing what I’m doing but so far, been fine since…

Could be a flow thing, not a superstar thing.
I’ve got two superstar wheelsets i regularly batter to no ill effect.

It’s not a Flow thing- or at least, it’s not an issue that anyone’s ever had with a Flow that wasn’t built by Superstar, and it is an issue that people have had with Superstar wheels that aren’t Flows 😉

My ss/crest wheels have been fine for a few weeks. I did buy them knowing that as i can build wheels i would be able to sort them if they lost tension but i have been ok so far.
Never had an issue with anything from them tbh. I think there is basically little or no quality control going on so it’s simply the luck of the draw whether you get a lemon or not..

Flows on Switch EVO here. Got them a year and a bit ago. Felt a slight bit too loose when I first got them, so I just tightened them up a bit before I rode them and they’ve been spot on since despite a tyre shedding clumsy descent in the Lakes amongst my usual heavy handed riding. My wife has a set of Superstar XC rims on Switch hubs and they’ve been trouble free for three years or so.

Just ordered a pair of Flow EXs on Tesla hubs from them. Fingers crossed.

cheap flows on switch evo here..

front is great. rear fell to pieces on the first ride. had it re-tensioned, fine since. The hubs are ace.

Still very cheap wheels, even with £20 thrown at the LBS.

You get what you pay for with SS, I use lots of their products, but it seems they have a customer service issue.

When I complained about my wheel build they just said that I should send them back… my response was

“what and have them built back up just as badly”…

My front Flow on Switch lost all tension after about 100km. LBS redid both for me for £15.

Told SS but as I sorted the issue without giving them the opportunity I though nothing of it.

It’s not a Flow thing- or at least, it’s not an issue that anyone’s ever had with a Flow that wasn’t built by Superstar

Well, except the issue I talked about right above you saying that…
My flow wasn’t built by superstar and I had problems with it for months. , it was rebuilt twice by les linderets guy, once by English bike shop bloke in morzine, and once, maybe twice by original shop who built it the first time in the UK..
It only stopped giving me problems when I tensioned it, not having ever done it before… 🙄

Don’t get me started here. I remember being told that the 203mm flame rotor I’d bought from them and had split had been used for a purpose that it wasn’t intended for! I asked if they meant braking and then received a boat load of shite about how they’d heard all about the sort of riding we did and that the flame rotors were for light XC only. Still not sure who would need a 203mm rotor for “light XC” riding (what ever that is).

To top off my stupidity I bought a load of brake pads from them in 2012. When they finally tried to deliver them after 12 weeks I refused the delivery. Currently being refused a refund as they haven’t received them back from the courier over 6 months after I refused the desperately late delivery, a total of 9 months since I placed the order.

They wouldn’t know customer service if it bit them on the ass!

Rant over.

Oops, sorry- still, it’s something that afflicts Superstar non-Flow builds so at lesat I got that half right 😉

Max tension for a Flow is 100kgf, for Flow Ex it’s 125kgf, these aren’t particularily low – they’re actually higher than Mavic recommend for any of their standalone rims (90kgf, from Mavic-Tech). (Crossmax SX recommends 90-130, for another comparison, but then they’re low spoke wheels so need more tension)

But, I think some people are afraid to build them up to spec because of the eyelet thing, to be fair.

They wouldn’t know customer service if it bit them on the ass!

and one day hopefully it will…
In the end you get what you pay for, if it works it’s a bargain and your happy. If it doesn’t there isn’t much margin for sorting it out (or answering the phone/email) so it’s tough. Probably will end up with someone getting bored and properly complaining about them not too them.

They are always told it’s fine/its your own fault/that’s supposed to happen/you have used the product incorrectly.

that’s not completely true here’s another – I didn’t even ask for a refund/replacement just pointed out had a quality issue on some brake pads that I had to drill out the paint on to fit – obviously “your brakes must have been modified” was the superstar bingo response

Sounds like their builder is greasing the spoke threads to make them easier to turn.. a short sighted thing to do at best 😯 This would make them unwind again even if they were retensioned.
In contrast, my mate’s singlespeed rear wheel from them was over tensioned and would self-pringle.
It’s bonkers inconsistent and I’m glad I don’t have to use them.

I’m shocked. …. No one asked if it was a 29er…. I’m sure that could be the problem! *runs away for cover* 😈

I can’t be bothered to read it all but I believe he bought a wheel building machine but left the loctite on the shelf in the shop.

Mine were the same, front ok, rear csme loose and has since been tensioned again, not great but for me not the end of the world as I spent time when I was a child learning to true wheels so it was a 5 min fix.

I put it down to them being machine built and no loctite! I’d happily pay £220+ for the skf or fag bearing upgrade too, but hey the hubs are free at that price so can’t complain too much and it hasn’t cracked yet like my DT240 did!