Velocity A23 Pro Wheel Set Review. *Spoiler! They're Bogus.

On paper, the A23 Pro wheel set looks great: 1500 grams, tubeless ready, sealed bearings, wide profile, aero-dynamic shape, and hardly any spokes to hold it all together –all for under $800.

But the thing is, the promise is greater than the delivery. Tubeless compatibility, aero shapes, and a wide profile add weight, yet the wheel set is lighter than most of its price-point competitors. Velocity would have you believe that it's because of their superior engineering, but, um, I don't think so.

The only way to make a wheel lighter is by using lightweight materials (in this case, aluminum) and then removing that material until only the bare minimum remains to hold the wheel together.

Problem with the A23 is that they went a little past that minimum. In addition to making the brake track annoyingly thin (and a little wavey), they took too much aluminum out of the nipple hole reinforcement. Behold:

What I want to draw your attention to is the bulge where the spoke nipple meets the rim. This is bad. 

(Here's another angle. This bulging can be seen on all the spokes of the rear wheel, and a few on the front wheel)

Given enough time, the rim will eventually look like this:

(This shot was taken from an old, discontinued Mavic rim)

What's going on is that the 1200 or so newtons of pulling force the spoke is exerting on the rim has caused the aluminum to bulge. This also reduces the overall spoke tension of the wheel, but not equally because not all rim holes fail at the same rate. What we end up with is a wheel that first becomes wobbly, then loses spoke tension at a catastrophic rate, then fails altogether.

This problem is compounded by the fact that whoever built the wheels at the factory (Bruce, says the ID sticker) didn't do a great job. When I first got the wheels the spoke tension, as measured by my Park Tensiometer, was inconsistent and Bruce didn't apply his best effort to truing the wheel either.

This happens sometimes, especially with cutting-edge bicycle design and a new workforce. The bike companies are always looking for ways to improve their products while cutting costs, and sometimes they go too far. That's OK, I guess. We customers want light bike parts, but we demand they be cheap too.

Well, it's OK as long as the company is willing to fix the problem without any undue stress on the consumer.

But, in the case of Velocity, that isn't what happened.

Here is my email correspondence with the Velocity Rep, but I had a few phone conversations too. If you don't want to read through the whole thing, the Cliff Notes version is that after several emails and a questionnaire, they were only willing to give me a pair of replacement rims, not a whole new wheel set or free shipping and labor on a swap. I took the replacement rims, but they sent black ones instead of silver. They wanted me to do the labor on my own dime, too, or send it to them at my own cost so their mechanics could fuck it up again.
Also, I made some small edits below, but they aren't important to the gist of the correspondence.

Dear Bike Blog or Die,

We’ve seen this before a few times, It could be due to either too much load on the wheels, bad O/C rear extrusion, or too much torque and power transfer on the rear wheel. I don’t want to call you fat, and I don’t want to say that our product is bad, so I will say that it’s probably the latter of the three, and you are a beast! I can send out a replacement rim if you’d like to do a rim transfer, or I can have you send it back for a rebuild on a new rim. If you’d like a rim I’d just need to know the spoke count drilling, and color. If you’d like the wheel rebuilt I will need the below information along with a shipping address to start the RA in our system, I will then pass over a RA number which you will need to indicate on the box upon sending them in. Let me know what you’d like to do.

For us to properly assess and document the situation, I will need as much of the following information requested below:

1.)What type of wheel is it.

2.)What diameter is the rim? (if unsure, you can find it on sidewall of your tire.)

3.)How much weight is on the wheels (rider, bike, gear).

4.)Is this a tandem bicycle or not. 

5.)How long have you had these rims/wheels, about how many miles?

6.)What size tire and pressure are you using.

7.)Are you running a tubeless application, or conventional tubes?

8.)Does your bike have Disc brakes or not?

9.)Are the rims laced to Velocity hubs, or another manufacturers hubs?

10.)  What is the rear wheel spacing, is it a 130mm, 135mm, other spacing?

11.)  What drilling/spoke count are the wheels?

12.)  What Color are your rims, spokes, and hubs?

12.) Did they come stock with your bike, or are they an aftermarket purchase?

 13.)Were they built by Velocity, do your wheels have a Proudly built by sticker, if so, what are the intials(sic), and date?

  14. )In a few sentences please describe whats going on with your wheels?

Thanks for your interest in Velocity USA.

*************************************

Hi D---, 

Thanks for getting back to me so soon. 

I have more bad news though, the front rim is doing the same thing as the back. Only on a few spokes at this point, but I think it could get worse, so it looks like I need to rebuild two wheels. 

Would it be possible for me to send in my wheels and exchange them for a different wheelset?

Anyway, here's the questionnaire:

1. A23 Pro 

2. 700c (622mm)

3. 190 lbs

4. Not a tandem

5. 1.5 years, 2000 miles

6. 700x25c at 100 psi

7. Tubes

8. Rim brakes

9. Velocity hubs

10. 130mm

11. 20/24

12. Silver, silver, silver

12. Aftermarket, but did you know you put "12" down twice on the questionnaire? 

13. Velocity built, by "bruce" on 1-21-14 

14. On the rear wheel, where the nipple meets the rim, there are protrusions and cracks, as if the spoke is trying to pull out of the hole. On the front the same thing is happening, but to a lesser degree: there are no cracks, just a few bumps. 

Thanks!

Bike Blog or Die

***********************************

I can sell you a new rear at a discounted price (crash replacement cost) for $201.00 otherwise we’d have to use your same hub for the rebuild and build up another 24h.

Thanks for your interest in Velocity USA.

***************************

(Three weeks later...)
***************************

Hi D---. I just got back from school and saw the rims you sent me, but we have a problem. 1: the rims you sent are black, but the originals are silver, and 2: the rear wheel you sent me is has off center spoke drilling, but the original wheel is just a normal 24 spoke A23. 

If you guys just want to send a whole new set of wheels, I'd be more than happy to field destroy these and send you the pics for proof. 

Thanks

Bike Blog or Die

******************************************

I actually didn't send this last email because in between I called them on the phone to complain, and they said, and I'm paraphrasing, "Tough luck." Then they said all they'd be willing to do is sell me a new set of wheels. I wanted to return the crappy ones they gave me, but they said "no" because my wheels were used and unsafe to ride....  

 Velocity wheels are poorly made and their customer service sucks. That's my review. 

p.s. After sitting and pouting for several months, I finally re-built the wheels on the new rims, and did a much better job of balancing the spoke tension than "Bruce."   I'll update this post if those wheels go bad in the next few months.

UPDATE: The re-built wheels lasted about 2 years before I sold them. I told the guy that if they crack he should contact me ASAP. So far so good. I guess that means Velocity fixed the problem? -9/2017

Update, sort of. Actually, just more complaining: 

Customer came into the shop with the exact same problem as me. He has a Velocity factory-built rear wheel with the spokes pulling out. 
Understandably, he didn't want another Velocity rim, so we didn't try to do any warranty, and just built him up a new wheel with a different brand rim. Check out the pics below.