I’ve bought a fair bit of SS. SS do some good stuff “for peanuts”, but you have to treat purchases like they have no warranty, even though that would be illegal under EU trading laws.

oh dear oh dear another person learns the hard way avoid ss stuff at all costs it is utter c**p brought some pads from him a few years ago lasted one ride not a wet ride just one ride in the dry sent them back only to be told I had not fitted them right at this point had I told them who fitted them,it was me and when I queried this was told that I hadn’t fitted them right when I pointed out(via email) that iam a fully qualified engineer and knew how to fit a set of brakes pads got slagged off on here so avoid at all cost 👿

I’ve never had to contact them but I’ve never had a problem with any bits.

fatsimon, did you bed the pads in? What compound were they?

Bike stuff of any value fails now and then , its more about how its delt with by the shop that matters to me ,
Who’s hubs are those anyway ?
And some people are not suited to light weight parts

I actually got through to Superstar today on the phone. Apparently they are awaiting some spare parts, not sure exactly what as the guy I spoke to did not seem to know either or know much about the issues with my hub in particular. The spare parts are on the way but are stuck at customs… probably, so I have been told. So will have to keep waiting.

I live around 30 miles from ss ,im sure I sore the guy the other day on a unbranded frame with loads of ss tat bolted on. his ginger hair was hard to miss with the lack of helmet , the unit they work out of is all on one level, it has a small office attached to a small warehouse there can’t be many more than 5 to 10 people that work there id not be convinced the guy you spoke to on the phone knows nothing of the issue

I appreciate what you are saying jono but I did write ‘did not seem to know either or know much about the issues.’ That implies more than ‘nothing’ but a lot less than having anything concrete/solid to say.

They did say about another week, so at least that is a step in the right direction!

hope it gets sorted, its a shame to hear about there lack of customer service the guy seems a bit bi polar to me ive had good dealings with him and bad on the plus side when you eventually get your wheel back you might end up with a good one this time

I had a problem with a tesla freehub, they rebuilt the wheel for me, cost me for postage, took longer than I would have hoped, but replacement hub functioning OK.

Not a disaster, not brilliant, had a lot worse customer experiences with other popular names in the bike industry

The only time I had to send something back to Ss I got a replacement very quickly.

To offer some counterbalance… I genuinely prefer superstar Switch hubs to hopes. They are just rebranded novatech, and have so far been flawless for me. When I bought some 2nd hand dh wheels and had a problem with them, they were really supportive and helpful, and sorted me with the tight part in 24 hours for minimal cost.

Some of Superstar’s stuff is OK, other bits I wouldn’t touch with a double-bagged barge pole.

Things that can’t really go wrong (brake adaptors, skewers, etc.) all fine; brake pads I’ve found generally OK although I have had one pair separate from the back plate. That siad I’ve had the same with EBC pads.

The bearings that they use though are completely atrocious – I have one of their headsets on my Alpine 160 which has been fitted for 12 months and is on its third set of bearings. When they go, it’s being replaced with a Hope.

A quick scan of the product reviews on their site (especially things like BBs and headsets) is a real eye-opener…

Just had an email from SS today… wheels are in transit! Can’t wait to see if they work.

Well looks like they replaced the hub body and free-hub but used my old bearings. See how it rides soon.

Well looks like they replaced the hub body and free-hub but used my old bearings. See how it rides soon.

really?

that’s mad if true, they might as well have just given you a new one for all the faffage involved.

That’s what I was thinking when they told me last week ‘waiting for parts, stuck at customs.’

However, they did throw in a massive roll of tubeless rim tape which is nice.

they did throw in a massive roll of tubeless rim tape which is nice

Between that and the cheap sweets, they do all they can to distract you from the quality issues.

Still yet to go on a ride but been getting everything ready and decided to pack the labyrinth style seals with grease.

I saw a washer which sits on the drive end side bearing of the hub, which when looking at it from the drive side of the bike, the free-hub slides over the axle and then the quick release adapter threads onto the axle. What I noticed this time compared to the first wheel was that adapters were done up very tight! On the first wheel they literally fell apart and if I tightened them, the free-hub would be very stiff to move. This time I can nicely tighten up the adapters and the free-hub is lovely smooth to spin freely. The bearings do not need ‘loading’ (like a headset) as they are all sitting in there housings and spaced correctly and the axle can be tightened up. I wish I checked more closely now, but I think my original wheel did not have the washer in the hub, which contributed to the failure.

I could be wrong, but if anyone does have the wheel it would be worth checking.

So finally been on first ride, just a ride down the coast, nothing taxing. The hub jerked slightly about 4-5 times in total… just slightly though, nothing major, but enough to let you know it is there!

Trail centre tomorrow, see how it goes there.

I really hate to revive this thread, but its happened again… second one failed. I do see that Superstar are introducing a new Tesla hub though. Extract from the email:

“
Thank you for replacing my rear wheel at the end of July 2013. Unfortunately, the warranty replaced rear wheel has been causing issues and is imminent to complete failure in nine and a half months of moderate riding. The previous rear wheel had the same amount of riding albeit with a three month break in-between.

I have had very poor shifting issues. My local bike shop inspection found the rear wheel drive side axle drop out adapter to be bent. I stripped down the wheel to find that the adapter had been cross threaded, see Images 1 and 2. Also, the inspection revealed considerable damage, worse in condition than the original hub failure, to the freehub housing. Deep gouges have been cut into the inner periphery, no doubt causing damage to the hub teeth, see Images 3 and 4. This confirms my recent experience of intermittent slight slipping from the hub during power strokes but as of yet not complete failure. Image 5 shows the freehub teeth condition.

Once again, I have had no issues with the bearings themselves and 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).

This entire fiasco is wasting considerable amount of my time, money and resources. Mechanical issues with mountain bikes, especially trail bikes are expected but not on warranty replaced parts. The failure of this hub is also effecting my riding schedule. The last wheel took two weeks to return. In that time there was little to no communication from yourselves. Any communication that I did have was after spending multiple hours engaged on the telephone and the calls being sent to an answering machine.

… …I have also recommended yourselves to multiple friends. However this hub and therefore wheelset is completely and wholly not fit for purpose. I do not want another warranty replacement like for like or otherwise, as I have lost all confidence with your hubs…. … .
“

Pics:
Axle 1
Axle 2
Hub 1
Hub 2
Teeth 1

I carefully got apart the axle and took a fine thread file to chase the threads… got that back together. Just waiting for Superstar to get back to me and then ship them off.

Just ask them for a steel free hub not alloy.

Its not the free-hub… well, it is the freehub eating itself into the hub-body, which is obviously wrong. Any axial force and the free-hub teeth are gouging themselves a new home to live in the hub body. I thought my rear mech was bent initially, turned out to be this BS again.

You say you don’t want a warranty replacement so what do you expect Superstar to do?
For what reason are you shipping them off?
Just buy new wheels. Whatever you want.

I sent my 4 month old Tesla / Tactic rear wheel back to superstar with a failed freehub, and they are sending out an upgraded Tesla Evo in its place :-).

Here’s how it goes, the freehub wobbles on the axle, the back of it grinds the hub inner, swarf from this gets everywhere and destroys the seals, water gets in and ruins the bearings.

Buy a Chris King or a Hadley or a Hope hub the next time and don’t be leary with the hose pipe or the GT85.

to iolo: my money back….

dantsw13 – I think they will do the same for me (I hope), although a full refund would be nicer!

Mechanical issues with mountain bikes, especially trail bikes are expected but not on warranty replaced parts

I’m sorry, what?

So all bikes if built of warranty replacement parts would never fail?

Personally, I’d get them warrantied, sell them and buy some Hope Pro2 Evos.

They may fail, but Hope will bend over backwards to sort it. Plus they answer the phone. Actually, its usually an engineer who answers the phone.

Your email is too wordy, they’re a budget company, they couldn’t give a monkeys how you figured out what went wrong, just tell them the hub is slipping, and the axle is bent. Think objectively, what do you want them to do, and ask for it. In a couple of sentences.

Telling SS how you *feel* isn’t going to help anything.

to rickon: Superstar knew they had that issue, I asked them at the time if they had anything in the works to ‘engineer out’ the problem. No reply. Instead, they sent me the same hub again and it has resulted in the same issue again… Sort of explains itself, just a total waste of time this turns out to be. Customer satisfaction is perceptive, not scientific… Budget company or not, the stuff needs to work.

Yep, so tell them, my wheel has failed, and ask for a replacement. They’re not going to fix their QA issues because a customer has a failure – they’re too budget to turn their ship around.

Get the brand new wheels, sell them, take the cash, buy some Hope. Ride for the WIN.

Looking at the freehub and the teeth, do as I said above. New wheelset, sell it, cut your losses. That looks like very soft alu.

Cheers for the advise Rickon. Not sure I will get much for the wheelset though, but as you said might be best to cut my losses with this. If they upgrade the hub to the new Evo version… I am niggling to give it a go, although it will be like taking another bullet to the head if that does the same. The Evo hub and another two year warranty (on just the hub) might be good.

I think it’s reasonable to give Superstar one more chance to sort it, though I’d be raging too. If they can’t put it right then look for replacement or refund but I think you’d struggle to make a case for that at this point.

Nope. What rickon said. Cut your losses, **** them off and never use them / him again for anything other than brake pads.

Hang on, you think it makes more sense to walk away than it does to get the wheels fixed? Even if he’s never happy riding them again they’re worth something in working condition, worthless as they are.

The Tesla freehubs are total rubbish. I had 2 failures, the first after just 40 miles the second after about 200. Each time the warranty work meant a 2 week turn around. I sold the bike the wheels were fitted to a coupke of weeks after the 2nd replacement freehub and shortly afterwards it failed again. Total rubbish.
Btw, if you speak to them before returning the wheel they will arrange collection from you at their cost.
interestingly I picked up a post from SS on facebook recently and I commented about the poor quality of the Tesla freehubs. There response was that warranty failures on the Teslas were very rare and they sell many thousands of them each year. They also said their turnaround on warranty work was now only 2-3 days not 14 days.

.I have also recommended yourselves to multiple friends

Do you not want to keep your friends?

Find a skip for your crap Superstar wheels. Buy some Hopes. Ride bike.

It’s not rocket surgery. You’ve made an error; time to put it right.

The problem with superstar is that they originally started as a bit of a ‘smash and grab’ type operation. Undercutting (legitimately and correctly) the major brands on components that are not complicated, brake pads and the like. This creates two ‘problems’. Firstly, they tend to regard the transaction as irrevocably finished the second they send the item. Secondly, they are not geared up for dealing with items where there are tens of things that can go wrong, and the associated complaints.

If you buy a simple and cheapish component from them and don’t need to send it back, you will think them excellent. Ask them to go outside of their model of ‘take payment, pack, send, forget’ then you are bound to encounter problems. Someone who has made money out of mass importing of ‘grey’ items is unlikely to want to deal with complex warranty issues on high ticket items. Every minute he has to spend on this is costing him money in his mind.

The other end of the spectrum is Hope. They have built a ‘brand’ and want to keep it.

You pays your money and takes your choice, but remember that initial purchase price is not always the only thing to consider. Mountain biking wears stuff out and breaks stuff. You will probably need after sales on at least some purchases.

Buy cheap, buy twice.

Dannyh, spot on. A lesson to us all. Wholelife cost is more than just initial cost.

I have some chris kings on my bike that have travelled from bike to bike over the years, I guess after 12 years of being there and never missing a pick up or squeaking once I ought to maybe look to treat them to a service or something just in case…..ditto rickon, expensive outlay but wholelife cost and residue value better than an e-class merc…

I was told by someone who had been to visit they machine their own stuff now and had lots of Haas machines whirring away as opposed to being just an import box shifter.