Weird lines on Mavic 217 SUP rims

[MMaister]

Hi,

I am about to buy a nice set of wheels with Mavic 217 SUP Ceramic rims. They look great but there are some strange hairline marks around the rims approx in their centerline. They appear mostly around the eyelets but some of them are in between. They certainly don`t look like classic eyelet cracks, but what else it can be? Have you seen anything like this?

thank you

 

[Fourbikes]

I've got some Mavic 220s with lines a bit like that, I'm not sure what they are but I'm fairly sure they're not cracks.

 

[Alla]

These are definately cracks. Those rims are prone to cracking, especially near the eyelets. I have one NOS rim with exactly the same issue.

 

[Nabeaquam]

Looks like something is cracked. I’d be wary, especially since the others have noted these rims are prone to cracks. I wonder how much they affect performance, or is it mainly cosmetic? Are they double walled? Anyway, a bit more research. Perhaps they’re safe, maybe you can get a bargain if they are.

 

[Tootyred]

Yep. Deffo cracks. The wheels are really sensitive to over tight spokes. They tend to fail at the spoke holes next....they pull through.

 

[Vesatoro]

Ok, for wallhanger, if cheap. Wouldn’t ride them.

 

[neilbah]

i believe the failure mode is contributed to by bead movement inflating the tyre and deflating over time.

 

[Alla]

The problem exists with the hard anodized versions only, not with the staight aluminum ones. Hence, it ist probably an issue related to the hardened material and not to wrong "movement" or installation. As I wrote earlier, I have a NOS rim with micro cracks.

 

[bikeworkshop]

These rims were light, stiff and strong, 30 years ago.
The material structure might be unaffected if they had never been built into a wheel. @Alla 's experience implies even nos could be a goner.

More usually though the cracks open out at the eyelet and the wheel starts to irrepairably go out of true.
I've seen loads of those.

 

[JoeH]

I was taught to sand back, and see if it's in the sub structure or not.

Obviously cosmetically this isn't a great thing to do if you do want the rim