Good Day All,

I returned my Superstar Tesla wheelset due to the freehub failing. Wheelspec:

Custom Wheelset Generator – Pair of Wheels
– Adaptor Inc F – SWITCH/TESLA 15mm Adaptor
– Adaptor Inc R – SWITCH/TESLA QR Adaptor
– Hub Type Front Tesla Front Hub – Red
– Hub Type Rear Tesla Rear Hub – Red
– Nipples Red Alloy SAPIM SILS
– Rim Stans Arch EX Disc White – Instock
– Rimtape Included Free of Charge
– Spokes CX Ray Black SAPIM Spokes – Ultralight Bladed

Total: £392.98

Been used for a total of 6 months only. Superstar received the wheelset on 10-Jul-13. Here is the letter I sent with the wheels:

“
I am returning my custom built wheel set in a cleaned and fully stripped down condition for inspection. The freehub drive has completely failed. I have had no issues with the bearings themselves.

I have been running the wheelset on my trail bike for a total of 6 months. The freehub started to slip 4 rides ago with the hub slipping on the initial power stroke but then seemed to be fine, although with some minor slippage at times, for the duration whilst the cranks were moving. It then worsened so that on every power stroke the hub slipped causing the cranks to jerk through the arc of motion. The rear wheel freehub was stripped, cleaned and re-greased using slick honey grease. This proved to be futile and did not resolve the issue. I have attached some photographs showing the damage found to the interior of the hub body: Image 1 – shows wear to the teeth of the freehub wheel. Image 2 – deep cuts on the inner periphery of the hub body.

No harsh cleaners, chemicals or jets of water have ever been used in the cleaning of the wheels (or any other components on my bike).

It was noted that on the initial fitting of the cassette that the correct torque for the cassette lock-ring could not be achieved as the free hub slipped whilst I was using a torque wrench. Although this did alarm me that this could be a potential issue or failure criterion in the wheelset, the drive in the wheel was not compromised at all and I did not investigate further. After the initial shake down ride of the wheel set, I was that impressed that I emailed yourselves and posted a favourable review on your website.

I appreciate that the ‘superfast pickup’ requires much finer teeth on the freehub body, but this should not come at a cost to the ‘bombproof reliability’. The wheels should be able to last longer than 6 months of trail/XC riding before needing to have the freehub body replaced, if ever at all! I have read online of other users having similar issues and would like to know if this issue has been or can be engineered out, as at present the wheels are not fit for purpose.

I look forward to hearing from you and would prefer to be contacted via email.
“

Image 1 – HERE

Image 2 -HERE

I received only one reply and that was a week ago:

“
The comments for your order are

Hello, we have received your item back for warranty inspection, your item and emails have been sent to the technical/warranty staff that will inspect your item over the next few days and contact you with their finding. We thank you for your patience.

Yours
The Superstar Team
“

I have tried ringing superstar but fail to get through and it just goes onto the answering machine. I also feel that I am not being that unreasonable with the time scale because in all honesty how hard is it to take 2 x 5mm hex keys and undo the freehub to technically stare at it? Has anyone else been in this position and had any issues with the Tesla freehubs. I did some looking around and some folks did mention that these are actually a older failed design based on a dmr hub.

Welcome to the forum.

Give them a ring first, rather than slag them off online. Perhaps they are on holiday ? Out riding their bikes ? Ignoring your email ?

Hello, we have received your item back for warranty inspection, your item and emails have been sent to the technical/warranty staff that will inspect your item over the next few days and contact you with their finding. We thank you for your patience.

😆

put it on the other side of my desk….

edit Ah a first post ranter, this will go well

#stows bag underseat, straps in, puts seat to its fully upright position.

GO!

I have tried ringing superstar 3/4 times a day for 4 days straight and ‘conveniently’ fail to get through.

😆

Neil, Fruit and whatever other logon id he decides to adopt presumably!

I thought people bought SS stuff as its cheap? £400 would have gotten a set of Hopes with change!

And don’t Hope do good customer service or something?

I think I owned myself believing that they were good value for money…

I didn’t like the hope branding, but after fitting their headset I am converted. Just a shame that was after I bought the ss wheels!

Incidentally, is this a good thread to discuss the reliability issues the tiny little teeth on these fast pick up designs might suffer from?

edit : I reckon superstars value for money probably peaks when we’re talking about solid, cheaper stuff where customer service doesn’t matter so much (switch hubs for instance)

mrmonkfinger, I was hoping too. I was hoping to find out what material the teeth are cut from and what other manufacturers use.

edit: in all of the hub spec’s it says 3×2 pawls. So three pawls with double teeth. But I counted 6 pawls with double teeth! Have I got it wrong or does 3×2 mean something else?

Have I got it wrong or does 3×2 mean something else?

6? 😉

Aren’t they arranged as three pairs?

I’d guess that if it was 3×2.

barik – Member
I have tried ringing superstar 3/4 times a day for 4 days straight and ‘conveniently’ fail to get through.

I suspect they were closed on Saturday and Sunday

The problem here is not so much the warranty issue but that you can’t get hold of them for an update. If you are sending emails and leaving answer phone messages then its not fussy to expect a reply in a week. I would raise a claim through Paypal or your credit card if you haven’t heard anything within a few days. Personally as someone who runs s business it hacks me off when people don’t answer emails in 24hrs

The problem here is not so much the warranty issue but that you can’t get hold of them for an update. If you are sending emails and leaving answer phone messages then its not fussy to expect a reply in a week. I would raise a claim through Paypal or your credit card if you haven’t heard anything within a few days. Personally as someone who runs s business it hacks me off when people don’t answer emails in 24hrs

The problem here is not so much the warranty issue but that you can’t get hold of them for an update. If you are sending emails and leaving answer phone messages then its not fussy to expect a reply in a week. I would raise a claim through Paypal or your credit card if you haven’t heard anything within a few days. Personally as someone who runs a business it hacks me off when people don’t answer emails in 24hrs

I didn’t like the hope branding

you thought superstar was a better brand than Hope? Really?

Really really. Converted now though.

Cheers Woody, will look into the Paypal resolution.

Cool. You are forgiven. 🙂 hopefully you’ll get it sorted. FWIW I’ll always go with Hope given the choice. It may not be the best kit in the world but it’s decent and they always stand behind their products 100%

Don’t forget that there are more than just 3 bike forums, or are you having a rest before you sign-up and post in more of them 😉

Here are some more to help you out for when you get the time ~
http://www.bikeforums.net/forum.php
http://road.cc/forum
http://www.mtbe.co.uk/
http://www.cyclechat.net/

Time limit to open a Paypal claim is 45 days Im afraid.

Only 3-4 times a day you have to try harder than that. I just constantly redialed until someone picks up which can be quite a while!

The issue here is that Superstar is run by an utter sheester. I’m afraid you will not get a decent resolution out of this (hell, he may even accuse you of lying), their customer service is dire.

Why would you return the wheelset, when it’s just the rear you’ve trouble with?

And I got to agree with others, a set of Hope Hoops would’ve cost you less.

But, MTBing does damage/destroy equipment so could happen with other manufacturers (I split a Hope freehub somehow for example) aren’t you able to borrow another back wheel until this one is fixed?

How many miles/hours did you do in the 6 months of use?

Gutted about the paypal 45 days.

Why would you return the wheelset, when it’s just the rear you’ve trouble with?

I kept the original superstar box for the wheels and they do a free wheel truing service. The postage costs for the wheels come from my pocket, so for the weight of front wheel I decided to send it off in the same box for it to be true’ed up as well.

I took out my original shimano deore xt’s with dented rims, surprisingly they still work tubeless.

The wheels have only had 6 months of real term abuse as they have sat in the house for long periods of time, 3 months, whilst I have been away at sea at work. When at home I ride about 3-4 times a week: 1 local xc ride (20-30 miles), 1 trail centre(10-20 miles), 1 night ride(~15 miles) and a weekend ride(20-40 miles). The bearings are lovely mind. No issues there.

Here is my post on the superstar website after getting the wheels:
“
I have never written a review for anything I have bought online but I am making an exception for this. I was gob smacked when I saw the wheels and then grinning all throughout my first ride. The build quality is superb. I highly recommend to anyone to use Superstar components, don’t think about it just do it.

I did a lot of research to find the ‘perfect’ wheels and decided to go for the Tesla Hubs as they are ideal for trail centre abuse. Coupled with Sapim CX Ray spokes and alloy nipples on Stan’s Arch Ex rims has given me a wheel set that rivals wheel sets for the same price discounted from £1000 on other big retail websites. Same weight for wider rims and a higher spoke count. I also bought all the tools for swapping around centre lock disc brakes and the cassette. A lot cheaper from anywhere else and seem to be very well built.
“

Feel like a noob now. Nevermind.

mine took 2 weeks from sending to getting a newly rebuilt wheel, to be fair to SS crew the new one has been much better than the original which suffered the same fate as yours

to be fair to SS crew the new one has been much better than the original which suffered the same fate as yours was crap

When I see Superstar bits on a bike I always think corners have been cut.

Like looking at a car and seeing a Halfords oil filter; you know it’s not been done right.

OP: Superstar has a bad reputation on here, in part due to historic fallings out on the forum (to put it mildly).

It’s pretty much a one man band so the ‘technical team’ is the bloke who answered the email and does everything else.

Persevere on the phone would be my advice, unless you know anyone who lives near them

The issue here is that Superstar is run by an utter sheester. I’m afraid you will not get a decent resolution out of this (hell, he may even accuse you of lying), their customer service is dire.an oxymoron

FTFY

Cheap for a reason and they appear to like to test products by simply selling them and fixing them and upgrading as they break or simply stopping if they are too crap to fix

One of the few brands I avoid at all costs

When I see Superstar bits on a bike I always think corners have been cut.

Like looking at a car and seeing a Halfords oil filter; you know it’s not been done right.

ummm not really, that sounds like nonense, must of my bikes are built from 2nd hand or chinese bits and i seem to get by ok, things break, my Hope hubs have broken, if stuff gets used,it can break, their stuff does seem to break more often, but then some last for ages….

http://chris-noble-mtb.blogspot.com/

Sorry to say it but they have a loooong record of blaming the consumer for kit failure. I’d be surprised if he didn’t question your spannering skills.

Just to add balance…. I have loads of superstar bits…. Hubs, rims, skewers, brake adapters… All arrived pretty much next day and with sweets in the box. Cannot comment on customer service but I have found them to be fine.

Feel like a noob now.

If it makes you feel better, a mate o mine handed back his whole back for a warranty claim when it was just the freehub/pawls that were knackered 🙄

Yeuch!

Given his post I think we have found fruit – quick go see if he slags off other products in other posts 😉

Sweets or good customer service…

My bikes have loads of SS stuff and no problems with any of it. My mates hayes pads did come away from thebbacking though. Free tangfastics makes everything ok 🙂