dead alex330 rear

So I've got a rear alex 330 that I blew apart the hubshell on. Its a 20
spoke that came stock on my 03 specialized allez. Yes, I know, they're
crappy wheels. I never much liked them anyway. But... I've got a perfectly
good rim and 20 good spokes. Come to think of it, i've got a working hub of
sorts. One of the spokes ripped the hole on the hub flange apart.

Any ideas of a way to make this useful? Maybe someone out there has a 20
hole rear hub with a broken rim they'd like to sell me?

any help or ideas would be appreciated

thanks!
-Josh

Josh wrote:
So I've got a rear alex 330 that I blew apart the hubshell on. Its a 20
spoke that came stock on my 03 specialized allez. Yes, I know, they're
crappy wheels. I never much liked them anyway. But... I've got a perfectly
good rim and 20 good spokes. Come to think of it, i've got a working hub of
sorts. One of the spokes ripped the hole on the hub flange apart.

Any ideas of a way to make this useful? Maybe someone out there has a 20
hole rear hub with a broken rim they'd like to sell me?

any help or ideas would be appreciated

thanks!
-Josh

I'm not familiar with the Alex 330. No photo that I can find on their
web site. http://aclass-wheels.com/index.htm

If the hub holes are paired in the flanges maybe a Rolf or Bontrager
hub could be used?

Josh wrote:
So I've got a rear alex 330 that I blew apart the hubshell on. Its a
20 spoke that came stock on my 03 specialized allez. Yes, I know,
they're crappy wheels. I never much liked them anyway. But... I've
got a perfectly good rim and 20 good spokes. Come to think of it,
i've got a working hub of sorts. One of the spokes ripped the hole on
the hub flange apart.
Any ideas of a way to make this useful? Maybe someone out there has a
20 hole rear hub with a broken rim they'd like to sell me?

any help or ideas would be appreciated

thanks!
-Josh

You will see these hubs on eBay on occasion. Use the saved searches
function to keep an eye out and have it e-mailed to you every day.
--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Note that Alex redesigned these hubs to deal with their broken flange
problem. The hub used on the 03 Allez had oversized holes to accomodate
the bladed spokes. The new design has a normal size hole with a slot.
This distributes the load of the spoke head over a wider section of the
flange. They reduced the amount of flange that is cut away to beef
things up there too. The new hubs also have a quieter ratchet. You
should try to get the newer design if you buy one used. I'll take some
pictures and post them later to show the differences.

amakyonin wrote:
Note that Alex redesigned these hubs to deal with their broken flange
problem. The hub used on the 03 Allez had oversized holes to
accomodate the bladed spokes. The new design has a normal size hole
with a slot. This distributes the load of the spoke head over a wider
section of the flange. They reduced the amount of flange that is cut
away to beef things up there too. The new hubs also have a quieter
ratchet. You should try to get the newer design if you buy one used.
I'll take some pictures and post them later to show the differences.

We had one of the slotted-hole wheels come in with a broken flange, but this
time the load on the wheel was a car.
--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Hey thanks for the help everyone. I guess its good to know I wasn't the only
one that broke a flange on one of these. Or maybe thats a bad sign for Alex.
Either way, I may or may not have been practicing bunny hops that day ;-)

That said, so something like this guy
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ritchey-WCS-Rear...QQcmdZViewItem

would probably work fine, assuming my spokes fit through? Unfortunately that
one is campy which does nothing for me, but I'd much rather replace the hub
with something other then an alex (a.k.a. not prone to imminent failure)

thanks!
-Josh



"Josh" wrote in message
...
So I've got a rear alex 330 that I blew apart the hubshell on. Its a 20
spoke that came stock on my 03 specialized allez. Yes, I know, they're
crappy wheels. I never much liked them anyway. But... I've got a perfectly
good rim and 20 good spokes. Come to think of it, i've got a working hub
of sorts. One of the spokes ripped the hole on the hub flange apart.

Any ideas of a way to make this useful? Maybe someone out there has a 20
hole rear hub with a broken rim they'd like to sell me?

any help or ideas would be appreciated

thanks!
-Josh

Josh wrote:
something like this guy
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ritchey-WCS-Rear...QQcmdZViewItem

would probably work fine, assuming my spokes fit through?

If the spokes in your rim are evenly spaced (I don't know if yours
are), then a Ritchey or other normal hub should work.

But if your rim holes are paired, then ideally the hub would have left
and right flanges unevenly phased to match the rim.

Note that for paired rim holes, the key hub attribute is that the
left-to-right flange phasing is uneven, not whether the spoke holes are
paired in either flange. For an example, see the Bontrager Power-tap
wheel: it has paired rim holes, unevely phased left and right hub
flanges to match, but evenly(!) spaced hub holes (in each flange). See
http://www.bontrager.com/Road/Wheelw...eels/17565.php

I have put up some pictures of my broken ALX330 and the redesigned hub.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amakyonin/sets/1286769/

Also be aware that the Performance Titan wheelset is the same as the
ALX330 except for the stickers. The rear wheel was on sale for $99 last
month. It will probably drop down again. It may be the easiest solution
to get a compatible hub, a spare rim, and not have to buy new spokes.

amakyonin wrote:
I have put up some pictures of my broken ALX330 and the redesigned hub.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amakyonin/sets/1286769/

Also be aware that the Performance Titan wheelset is the same as the
ALX330 except for the stickers. The rear wheel was on sale for $99 last
month. It will probably drop down again. It may be the easiest solution
to get a compatible hub, a spare rim, and not have to buy new spokes.

Wow, those are fantastic photos! Thanks for posting them.

I see the replacement hub has added flange material. Should be
stronger, but heavier.

I wonder if there's room to cross the spokes one more time at the hub?
You know, one spoke inbound, the next one outbound, instead of all
inbound. Of course you'd need longer spokes. It seems to me that way
the spoke tension might put the flange material more into compression
instead of so much tension. One reason this might not be possible is if
the spokes get too close to the derailleur.