@rafaelinmissouri might be more willing to do these tests as his wheel is already completely destroyed. Maybe throw that chunk of core in some acetone so that we can watch it melt?
So since you do not have crumbling cores, it would be interesting to see you do a non destructive acetone swab of the surface. Pictures would be nice. If you have a polycarbonate core then you should see no effect. I could make a joke about setting your Iwonders on fire to see if they are safe – but I won’t.
So no kidding, clean up an area of the core with a non solvent cleaner like windex or alchohol. Then see if a Q-tip with acetone easily sponges the black plastic off the surface. You could swab any other PU wheel core for comparison. I’d love to see a side by side of the swap results. Then the same test from @Jpm5150
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Isn’t glass fiber nylon the best material for this? I feel like pc will also crack over time especially if exposed to certain solvents
Ok so a Haggyboard ABEC pulley in a genuine ABEC wheel:
Slides in and out easily (much easier than the Metroboard pulley) but with almost no play at all. Legitimately impressive tolerance. Does not fall out on its own, has to be pressed in and pulled out, though it takes almost no force.
Same pulley on the Cloudwheel:
Slides in and out loosely, and sits in the core with the tiniest amount of wiggle. Definitely noticable, but not what I would call "
" lol
Seems to confirm that the core pattern is based on genuine ABEC not the clone pattern, though the manufacturing tolerances are ever so slightly different. Really interested to see the pulleys that folks are reporting so much slop with.
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When I buy another set I’m going to see if it’s any different.
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Not seeing pics of broken wheels which had a pulley installed, maybe a safe bet would be to adapt an Abec pulley design to be shoved in any front wheels, dont see why it could not be one sided or quickly & easily removed with a bit of clever design work.
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I WONDER
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Something else to note is that the foamies in different colours are on pre order months away which makes me think slick revolution might be customising them beyond just the label.
Or the factory’s shut down from coronavirus…
It was like this back in november IIRC. Also, I watched a bunch of foamies reviews when they first came out and no one mentioned pulleys being different. I really think there is 2 different cores out there.
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So that’s where the brand name comes from.
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I bought a set of green Cloudwheel ,and rided for 2 weeks ,at least 100 miles.
They works perfectly so far.Worth to try.
Someone in Shenzhen told me,actually SR foamies is from IWONDER, SR just buy Cloudwheel and put “foamies” on it…
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Hi Julius-
I bumped your account so you can message and post freely.
Welcome!
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Both examples were drive wheels. @Jpm5150 was used as a drive wheel for 2 months, 200 km. @rafaelinmissouri purchased his 6 months prior to failure. It started off as a drive wheel then he moved it to the front. If your theory is that the pully reinforces the core to prevent cracking then that’s not consistent with the examples. If you are looking for a reason that some crack and some don’t then those wheels DON’T seem to be divided into drive wheels and boggies. Those that have cracked have been loose fitting and the plastic core appears brittle. Riders with tight fitting cores are not complaining of cracks (in this thread). So I would suspect a change in the injection molded material for the cores. Its a plausible theory because a material change is more likely than a mold change. Plastics that shrink more during injection molding tend to have less structural integrity.
If this material change theory is true then there would be a reliable test for each rider to evaluate their own set and request replacements if theirs came from a bad batch.
So if you are an optomist and a fan of the Iwonders, then there may be some value in collaborating to determine if there was a batch of lower grade plastic and how to test for the difference.
Alternatively, it would be helpful if the manufacturer could admit that there was a batch error and help to identify the high risk products.
I would be very interested to see the two failed products tested for ABS core material, then the same test performed on a conventional PU core. The acetate swab test might be a good place to start. There is also a flame test and a float test. Also a burn and sniff test. ABS has a very distinctive smell under flame.
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I’ll do the swab test tonight. Maybe the fire test after a few beers!
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Thank you for doing this @Jpm5150. If it seems conclusive that your core is ABS, then I will do a swab test on one of my wheels and see if there is any difference.
For some inane reason, these wheels remind me of that stupid Lemon Tree song, especially about that part about isolation.
On a serious note - They need to start making their cores in Kegel format with better material, and focus on the smaller wheel.
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Drop a small droplet of Acetate on the plastic and then let the bead sit there for about 30 seconds to see if it liquifies the surface. Then spin the q-tip in the bead to see how much plastic it picks up.
If you have some ABS plastic plumbing under a sink, you can perform the same test on the top of it to compare.
I’m suggesting this method because just swabing the surface with a Q-tip of acetate is likely to pick up a little bit of black from any plastic. The ABS will liquify and melt remarkably compared to other plastics if the Acetone rests on the plastic as a droplet (as opposed to a quick swipe).
How destructive is this test? I know it is your opinion that no one should be riding these wheels, but I have no regard for my own safety and I like how squishy they are. I would like to be able to keep riding them and I dont want to do any tests that will damage them. As discussed above, there is already not a whole lot of plastic in these cores.
So for the wheels that have already cracked, it does not matter how destructive. If indeed there is a new batch wiht polycarbonate or polyethelyne cores then acetate should have no effect on the plastic, especially a 30 second droplet. If indeed your core was ABS and had not cracked yet then the 30 second droplet would liquify the surface to what I would guess would be about a milimeter in depth. I don’t know if there would be any deeper structural damage but you would potentially gain the knowlege that you are riding on ABS cores.
At this point its all speculation. If it were me, i would want to know if I were riding on a structurally unsound core that shared some of the characteristics of ABS and might actually be ABS.
But I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll perform the acetate test on some TB cores and some ABS pipe and I’ll post a video.
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