Four spokes are broken on this two week old wheel.
Lots of people like a particular company or product if everything goes well. What happens when something goes wrong is what shows a different picture sometimes. Our friend Zeke just bought a set of Lightweight Standard tubular wheels, which are ultra premium carbon wheels and are not repairable. I suggested that he get Lightweight’s “Service Up” 3 year No Questions Asked wheel replacement program for an additional $600 and he said, “If you think it is important, sure!”
Less than two weeks after acquiring the wheels, Zeke was on a ride around the neighborhood with his six year old, and they had a little mishap going about 5 mph. It appears that the small bike was just the right size to be able to get caught in the front wheel and four spokes broke.
I took the front wheel off my KGS / Passoni XXTi as I knew Zeke needed to train the next morning and I hopped in the car and drove to his house and swapped the wheel out. Yes, I was “on the clock”, but Zeke had a conference call and didn’t have time to come to me, so he was thrilled to pay my “house call rate” and I was glad to help as well.
Lightweight was informed of the incident and they are shipping a wheel out, as promised, with no questions asked. This was my first claim with Lightweight since we began carrying these wheels and I was overjoyed to find that they did what they promised. Our client is happy, I am happy, and I wanted to share this story with you of a company that really stands behind their premium product. Bravo Lightweight!
Closeup of broken wheel
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The real question is, why is he training on Lightweights?
Great question. He is training on them because he loves the wheels. Eric Zabel got two seasons out of a set of Standards and the wheels are still good. The ride quality is suberb and with the Service Up program, there is no risk. The neighborhood ride with the son is admittedly riskier than a proper training ride because youngsters can and will go all over the place. The point was, this is a situation that could have had a horrific outcome and it didn’t.