What do you think about this crap rim?

burner77

100 W
Joined
Mar 4, 2014
Messages
135
Location
Austria
I have purchased a rim with spoked Crystalyte and looking to the rim it doesn't look very safe. The holes were just pushed inside. Thinking of using also a high pressure (4 bar) tire let's me think that this cracks are going bigger.
And at the end cracks the hole rim. Before I contact the dealer I want to ask YOU, what do you think about it? Thanks for your answers
 

Attachments

  • 1.jpg
    1.jpg
    69.9 KB · Views: 1,408
  • 2.jpg
    2.jpg
    112.7 KB · Views: 1,408
Someone just ruined the rim by screwing up the nipple access holes. I wouldn't even mount a tire on it for fear the rim would blow apart, much less use it on a bike.
 
what a pos, yeah who sold u that. :mrgreen:

ive found better rims in lying in back alleys.
 
if you enlarge the holes so the cracks are gone there'll be no startpoint for fractures to propogate from and it should be ok for normal use-nothing too stressful though, But that's a lot of work to recover a weaker rim, it's got to be better to get a new rim.
 
Thanks for your replies. It was very helpful. I will contact this dealer, which is a big one in Europe. If he will refuse to change the rim or looks for excuses I will post his name here. Otherwise it could be also an error of a trainee without supervisor…
 
You should post the name of the dealer anyway. The bottom line is that it happened. If the dealer makes good on the rim then post about good customer service. In the mean time, there possibly could be someone preparing to buy from the dealer and you may save someone else some heart ache.

Good Luck and I hope everything works out for you.
 
Are all the holes this way ?

It's sad to say but this is fairly typical crystalyte fubars, if the dealer is not opening each box and inspecting each kit carefully..... crystalyte will ship stuff like this to vendors.

It's the outer wall of a double walled rim, if there are no cracks on the surface near the nipples, i'd ride it... but certainly would not be happy about it.. :oops:
 
Well I have narrowed it down to europe perhaps. Where you from? If your my neighbour I can give you a set of matching ebike rims. Some I didn't like the look of myself, but show no signs of damage. It's just typical cheap chinese one's.

Your rims are ruined. If this is acceptable to crystalite, then crystalite are not acceptable for me. I wouldn't name the dealer though, he didn't do it and has not had chance to put it right. It was said he could check every item he sells, but you sack off your supplier before it comes too that. I'm sure they can't all be like that though. The wheel assembly machine was perhaps not set up with double walls in mind.
 
OK no answer yet, even contact different people working in … Crystaltyte-Europe.com …
The package included a non working brake sensor with some parts missing. All in all in a broken box.
It was the last time ordering for me. They have good prices. But you can forget the service.
Last time I had a warranty motor, sendet to them for repairing. And after 3 weeks I have contacted them to ask the current situation. They said the motor was repaired and delivered. I was replying to say that I haven't got anything. They said that they are looking for. After a week with no answer, I have called there and they said they dont know where the motor finished. After a week they spotted, that the motor was going to someone else.
After TWO MONTHS of emailing and calling I have paid by myself the delivery from the false customer to me to have the motor.
And now becomming such a rim it tells me how stupid I was to order there again. It seems they like more the profit than happy customer.
Maybe I was unlucky to and others had no trouble.

The other shops in Europe were more expensive and I have ordered some parts in Canada, which at the end was even cheaper and the delivery was very fast. And after all these experiences I'm thinking to run a Crystalyte web shop in Europe and sell stuff by my self… Maybe you have some ideas what else could I sell and which product would be interesting. I have contacted Lyen controllers… Let's see

Great forum, great projects and nice people here.
 
I have actually got no answer for Crystalyte Europe about the rim for 2 weeks. I have opened a PayPal Problem Solving case and have to wait.
I can not recommend to buy there…
 
Is there a notice on their site about holidays? I think it's a two man band and they shutdown while they take time off- I had a 2 or 3 week silent period with this as the reason and they don't seem able to send auto replies telling customers- but I think it was mentioned on their site. That said there were times when I seemed to be ignored too.

The contacts I had (rather than the general info@crystalyte-europe.com were:

thijs@crystalyte-europe.com

wietse@crystalyte-europe.com

Try contacting them directly.


(I've also sent you a PM).
 
If they are an agent, go round them. Send a pic too the real people, with a link to this thread if they want to see more. Explain your sorry to go around their distributor but they are being useless and unresponsive, and anybody can see this is a warranty issue that goes all the way back to the assembly line. Thus can europe be squeezed out of the return supply line, and you just send the thing back to base directly having proven purchase.

It is at this point you could express an interest in becoming the european supplier yourself, although having read this they will probably say no.
 
I have got a reply, Yeahh. Of course all rims are like this. Here is the answer:

"My excuse for later reply, it’s very busy for the moment.

The rim you received is not broken.
The inner holes of the rim are pressed with a machine, this is standard.
All new rims has these fractions, it has no influence on the strength of the rim. See photo in attachment of new rims.
Until now we never had a broken exal rim. The exal EX19 rims are very strong rims.
You can put easy 6bar on the tire the rim is really very strong.

The spoke holes are drilled under an angle, (this is the most important part of the rim)"


Now I have answers from the forum, like this:
"That's pretty shitty"
"Someone just ruined the rim by screwing up the nipple access holes. I wouldn't even mount a tire on it for fear the rim would blow apart, much less use it on a bike."
"Ruined. Looks like they tried to shove a larger sized spoke nipple into it. If they had drilled it, it might have been fine. However, the cracks and splits have ruined it."
"Your rims are ruined"
And I have to prove somehow, that your answers are more true, than the dealer ones…
Anyway thanks for your answers…
 
You can just tell them that the holes are supposed to look like this






:roll:
 
What's indisputable is that it's very poor engineering and indicative of a poor quality product. An inappropriate process has been used that has resulted in multiple fractures of the material.

Aluminium is a problematic material because it has a fatigue limit - if you bend it, it will crack and break eventually, no matter how tiny the bending. What they've done there is start you off well down this path to failure by including lots of substantial sized cracks from day one. These will grow and the wheel will fail catastrophically at some point.

The only question (and their only defence) is "when?". If it took five years of "normal" use and you could only reasonably expect a cheap rim to last 3 years then its good enough for the job. Still shitty, but of salable quality. Much like a £1/$1 screwdriver set you know will wear out after a few uses.

It's very interesting that rather than stating that the cracks aren't normal but are ok, they've stated that all their rims have these cracks :shock: That's admiting that all their wheels are crap and they know it.

You're probably not going to get anywhere with them unless you make a real noise and stink. The alternative is to ride it anyway and regularly inspect the outside for evidence of cracking, bearing in mind that you may not see anything before the rim fails completely without warning. Or get the motor laced into a decent quality rim. The knock-on advanatage here is you'll also have a much better, more reliable wheel overall.
 
I will wager they don't all look like that, because nobody would of walked away from the machine with it looking that way. Just what are they punching through it with, because it ain't sharp anymore.

I spent ages taking the burrs off mine, there is no way that is right. The photo's won't show half the true story.


edit: Just looking at google images. They are feeding you a line, hoping to reel you in. It's bollox. The rest look fine. Get writing to the real crystalite and add this response from them to your complaint.
 
Either they got them as reject / scrap parts, or someone didn't check when they were an incoming delivery and signed for them as ok and they are trying to minimise their losses.

Whatever the reason this seems a pretty quick way to put your company down the pan, especially trying to justify the crap. Crystlyte should really consider if this is the kind of agent they want representing them in 53 countries of Europe, (730 million people) or even 28 countries of the EU part of Europe- (500 million people).
 
Just thinking- I bet they are also concerned about shipping costs back to them for correction of the rim, and reshipment costs. They should be aware that's small fry compared to the potential cost of a damaged reputation.
 
If have sendet back my hole package. I have asked PayPal for the refund, because Crystalyte Europe say the rim is fine. Of course I have to pay the shipping by myself. And after writing more than 10 mails to Belgium this is the price I have to pay. It is very sad to make such an experience. Two orders and two times went wrong. But not a little bit. Spent both times writing alot of emails and paid my price. I can not recommend this shop. They want to sent my a new rim, but they are all the same. They sendet me a picture with many rims like mine. And they said: "It’s 100% normal. If we resend you new one it will be just the same."
I have asked if I can post this pictures in a forum and here is the answer: "I don’t think it’s a good idea that you post pictures on the internet, it looks for me like a threat. And we’re just a small family company and a misunderstanding on the internet can destroy our small business."

It was a big motivation for me to do better and decided to start a shop by myself: www.fasterbikes.eu
Logo is ready, but there are some hurdles…
I want to start an open shop for stronger ebikes and your are invited to tell me, which products you want to have, or some recommendation. I will try to solve it. As a reward I will give a good discount, when its starts…
Thanks
 
Indeed, the pictures would be threatening too his business.

If I were you I would still talk too crystalite. Show them what has happened and ask if it is true. Either way a small european family pedaling crap is not something to protect. It's the buyers, like the people here that need protecting from them. Find out who is responsible and let us know for your businesses health.


Your not actually in europe are you?

I would start with some torque arms. They seem easy enough to get lasered up and post out taped to card in padded envelopes with value's that won't interest customs officials. Torque arms go with many orders. Need a bigger motor, get torque arms. Getting a bigger battery, get torque arms. Buying a kit, get torque arms. New controller, get torque arms. It's one of them extra's many people might basket up.
Perhaps you could put a lot of money into common batteries from bmsb, with your only intention being quicker cheaper delivery than them.
The only real source of information that comes to mind is ebay. They are open about how shops are performing. I was going to bring in bikes, and saw a bloke bringing in the very same one, and asking a competitive price. 8 weeks I watched him for at the end of summer. Not a single sale (unless as a seller he could zero that clock)
 
Back
Top