Sigh… I just got my Ownboard replacement Cloudwheels, and they’re the old models AND one is cracked out of the box. I did manage to talk them into throwing some other goodies in the box for free (2 remotes, an extra esc, extra charger), so it wasn’t all bad. It’s hard to hold Ownboard responsible here anyways, and it’s just not worth the hassle and shipping to return these now.
Also, every time they’ve come with bearings and spacers installed, so I’m drowning in bearings!
Edit: the one wheel isn’t cracked, it’s the mold line, which my old ones didn’t have. I’m still not likely to ride these.
Do they have clear cores?
I noticed that slick revolution are not restocking until mid June - waiting on production of improved variant? Like iWonder Discovery
Could Ownboard be waiting on new improved variant too?
In which case they shouldn’t be shipping out old version as replacements for safety reasons.
They don’t have the new cores. I do have some with the new cores that I bought myself and am waiting for the pulleys to use. I would bet ownboard took a few minutes to quality check these for cracks before sending them, but they’re definitely the old ones and I’m pretty nervous about using them for anything.
I received the replacement wheels yesterday. They sent me the same old core versions so I’m not going to trust them. Just waiting on new pulleys since I only have 36T and the 40T ones are bolted on other wheels.
@BluPenguin your original core wheels didn’t crack right?
What about sugru? It would the take the initial possible shock out from the transfer of pulley port to the hubs, this is what is used in rear motorcycle hubs to soften stresses from the hub to the wheel
Doesn’t that stuff dry soft like silicone? I feel like epoxy would lock everything together and you’d actually have to break all the spokes to have a failure.
It’s fairly tough, that’s a recess and we’re talkingg about a buffer for avoiding phase wire damage and rubbing causing a short and ESC/rider damage. It is good to 180c too
I still don’t get why they insist on continuing to use a PC/ABS blend. The Discovery core thicker spokes don’t help the root problem which is that the bearing outer race is where most wheels cracked, and that wasn’t changed geometrically on the discovery core. Regardless, geometry changes to this hub won’t solve this problem. As the founder of Metroboard, I can say that we experimented with a few materials for our molded wheel pulleys used on the MetroboardX. We tried 30% Glass Filled Nylon and also a PC/ABS blend. Our pulleys also have a light press fit bearing inside. With the PC/ABS blend (what cloudwheels supposedly use), we consistently saw cracks form around the bearing support due to the stress of pressing the bearings in + riding stresses. With the glass filled nylon, we did NOT. PC/ABS is simply too brittle and not a good choice for a hub that is exposed to both the stress of inserting bearings and the stress of being ridden on. Conclusion: Change hub material to either a glass filled Nylon or a reinforced TPU. Both materials are tough, have some give to them, and will not crack nearly as easily as PC/ABS. I have relayed this multiple times to iWonder, but so far with deaf ears. Frustrating, since it’s such an easy fix. And the cost to change to these materials is not significant. Admittedly if the mold was designed around PC/ABS, the shrink rate may be different, so they may need to make a new mold for these alternate materials, but that cost should be in the noise compared to the warranty costs of wheels that are likely to fail before their useful life.
Everytime i think I am willing to try these out … more failed cores appear on the internet. iWonder needs to hit the drawing board. Please just use quality kegel cores. This is getting ridiculous.
K, maybe it is the material being used. Whatever they are doing, it is not inspiring confidence. I don’t care how cushy the ride is if they fail like this.
I’m not a redit User. Can someone invite the owner of these wheels to participate in this forum.
Somethings about the picture and circumstances are difficult to stitch together.
On the redit thread, the owner reports that he had two wheel failures. The one in the pictures and then weeks later a second wheel – both of them were motor wheels.
So I’m wondering what the odds are of two such failures. I have questions:
Does the fellow weigh 350 lbs?
Were the bearings overtightened and if they were, coudl the heat transmit through the cores and could that melt the adhesive that holds the tires to the cores?
I mean, the first time I looked at the pictures I thought “OK, these wheels are crap”
But when I read the Readit Thread — and saw more detail – I have to say – it does not make sense that this happens twice to the same guy, first on a 5 mile ride and then – after a replacement wheel arrives-- another failure in the middle of a 10 mile ride.
I’d have less skepticism if this was after months of use ot if it happened in the middle of a 50 mile run.
I can ride all day long and my motors are cool to the touch and my wheels are not any hotter than the back of my hand. How do wheels get hot enough to delaminate?
