Feedback: Pro Race eThirteen Wheels

[Jpzeroday]

I’ve been riding my Decoy on challenging technical trails recently. Boulder/rock like technical uphill in and down (Cowboy Trails, LV, NV, USA, for instance). I am find that I am getting a lot of bump steer and that the hub engagement is slack. Quick ratchet moves are sloppy. Seem these eThirteen wheels are really stiff/harsh.

Anyone one else have similar experience?

I am thinking about trying a set of DT Swiss M1700s on this bike with 54T ratchet. I have those wheels on my Yeti SB130 and previously on a Levo. Really found them to deliver balanced handling on the trail and handle harsh riding well.

BTW IMO, the Roval AL wheels that come on the 19 Levo are absolute junk. They could not even remotely handle aggressive riding. BUT, the Roval carbon wheels on the S-WORKS see to be stout and well handling.

 

[steve_sordy]

I bought an E13 TRS+ wheelset for my Norco Sight 1 clockwork bike several years ago. They were not cheap! They had 6-deg pawl engagement, 142x12mm hub width, angular contact bearings, scandium alloy rims and hub body, and a loud, clicky hub! They were lighter than any other hub I was looking at too.

They had a five-year warranty and that was the final convincer for me. If they were that confident, they must be good! It was the worst thing I ever did!

When I first rode the bike with the new wheels, I could really feel the difference! The wheels were so much stiffer that the bike went where I was pointing it without any effort. Rough and rocky corners - no problem. I hadn't realised that I was getting bump steer from the previous Shimano wheelset, until all of a sudden with the E13's, I wasn't. In addition, the bike accelerated faster, not like lightning, but noticeable. So, first impressions were very good indeed.

Then the rear hub failed after 128 miles, rusty as hell! So rusty that the springs holding the pawls against the ratchet fell apart. Warranty claim, but that took 3 weeks. The wheel came back, no feedback as to what they had done.
Another 711 miles and the freehub failed again! E13 said that the seal had failed and let water in. Also they advised that they had replaced the seals, springs, pawls, cassette body, bearings and axle! All under warranty. No dispute from E13, how could they?
Another 786 miles, the freehub failed again! This time while the potential buyer of the bike was test riding it! I had to tow all 16+ stone of him home on my other clockwork bike. After yet another 3 weeks without the bike, E13 advised that they had fitted a complete new XD driver freehub, new bearings and new design seals, all under warranty. Note that "new design seals"!!

When I was talking to the technician at Silverfish (the E13 UK agent) he told me that he had never had an E13 freehub fail twice before (except mine), let alone three times! Same fault, failed seals, rusty components falling apart.

I have never had a freehub fail on me before, or since. So was I just unlucky? Or was my riding style and cleaning regime unusually unkind to just E13 hubs? After the freehub was replaced for the third time, I sold the bike to the much heavier guy than me who was testing it when it failed under him. I kept in touch with him and he told me that it went again after several months, so he replaced the hub with "anything but E13" and had no further problems. He still has that bike as his only FS, and that was 2 years 8 months ago!

I'm sure that E13 have a wide range of different wheels and hubs, and their seal designs will surely have advanced (I sure hope so!) They still offer a 5-year warranty, so maybe I was just unlucky. And their warranty service was good, if a little slow on the turnaround. I just wish that I hadn't had to use it quite so often.

 

[Camstyn]

I haven’t had any issues with mine yet with almost 200 miles. The E13 LG1R carbon DH wheels on my Tues however, I am constantly breaking spokes on. Go figure.