The Bits Arrive, One By One

When you buy from the likes of Ebay and the classified ads pages of web forums you can never be 100% sure that the goods will actually turn up and that you won’t have wasted your money. Not even when you’ve actually got the item in your hands are you safe, for its web-based description and accompanying photo may not have been entirely representative of its actual state. Fortunately bad things happen rarely and even then they can usually be sorted out amicably with the seller, but you should know the risks up front can have no complaints if it all goes legs-up!

Not much trouble with my little collection of bits though. Both the F519 rims and all the hubs arrive in good time, as do the Teutonic spokes and their oversize nipples (no sniggering at the back!). It turns out that one of the F519s is drilled for a Presta valve, the other for a Schraeder valve, which is a little annoying but I think I might be able to live with that. I don’t plan to drill out the Presta rim as I’d done in the past with an X517 rim (no, not the one that cracked!). Quite apart from potentially weakening the rim with my half-arsed attempts at drilling, it causes an enormous amount of swarf (metal filings) that is almost impossible to eradicate completely and so risks causing future punctures.

Then there’s the Sun rims, or rather the lack thereof. After waiting eight days since I sent the PayPal payment I’ve e-mailed the seller and asked when I might expect to see them. He replies that he’s not yet posted them which, to be perfectly honest, makes me really f***ing cross. No doubt he’d be squealing like a stuck pig if I’d not paid him after a similar length of time, so I don’t see why I should feel any different with the roles reversed, especially as he’s not even had the courtesy to let me know without first being prompted. I point this out, politely but firmly, but he’s non-plussed to the point of being sullen. The rims finally turn up after a further week. I’m tempted to name-and-shame right here, but you already know enough to be able to figure out for yourselves who he is, both on Ebay and STW, without me having to do that! Of course, if I leave him the feedback he deserves on Ebay I should expect some kind of vindictive response-in-kind, so I won’t bother.

Putting the delivery palaver aside as the trivial matter that it is, my biggest issue with the Sun CR18 rims is their sheer lack of quality. I’ve said in earlier posts that I thought they might be the equivalent of Mavic’s XM317, but this is quite clearly not the case. Where the Mavic rim’s finish is shiny and bright, the Sun’s is dull. The Mavic has a quality milled braking surface, whereas the Sun has a rough brushed finish, which looks what it is: cheap. The Mavic weighs in at 440g; the Sun is 480g, 10% heavier. The Mavic has a deeper and therefore stiffer cross section; whereas the Sun’s shallow profile makes any over-long spokes a real puncture worry. I’m not impressed. If it wasn’t for the fact that the spokes are already on order I’d be looking elsewhere for alternatives and re-selling these. As it is I’ll probably stick with them, but the likelihood of me ever buying Sun rims in the future is very small indeed.