Catastrophic failure

Something less thought of that can also cause an axle/bolt/stud to snap is loose tolerances on the spacers and/or bearings when there is stacking and high stress perpendicular to the shaft. I used to see this a lot when guys would use random washers to space a rear shock they adapted from another motorcycle on to one of the bikes I own. Meanwhile, I have perfect fitting spacers, and never broke a bolt. The poor fitment and looseness between the points of contact allow for the shaft to experience high stress in localized regions, and over time the metal fatigues enough it can break - especially low grade metal like the "steel" the axles are made out of.
That loose fit..even a tiny bit of factory tolerances can cause stress at certain points along the axle.
I don’t mean to dog on mags. I’ve just seen a few mag axles break in my short time in this hobby. There’s something common to all this.
Guys spend good money on a set mags as an upgrade to cheaper spoke wheels with the thought it’s much safer. It seems the common failure point when there is a failure is on the axle. Maybe a better grade of steel to replace the stock mag axle will stop the failure on the axle.

I have no room to talk. I’m still on Walmart wheels. Maybe this thread will motivate me to make the necessary changes. My justification to my current wheels is this…I never travel at high speeds for long. I personally do not feel anything on my bike is suited to support rpm’s of 13K and the speeds thst go with it….90% of the time I’m at speeds of 25 or lower. Another 8%-9% is at 30-35 mph and on rare occasions I’ll get to the 50+ mph speeds testing changes. It’s that 1% or 3-4 seconds of high speed that may end up getting me too.
 
That loose fit..even a tiny bit of factory tolerances can cause stress at certain points along the axle.
I don’t mean to dog on mags. I’ve just seen a few mag axles break in my short time in this hobby. There’s something common to all this.
Guys spend good money on a set mags as an upgrade to cheaper spoke wheels with the thought it’s much safer. It seems the common failure point when there is a failure is on the axle. Maybe a better grade of steel to replace the stock mag axle will stop the failure on the axle.

I have no room to talk. I’m still on Walmart wheels. Maybe this thread will motivate me to make the necessary changes. My justification to my current wheels is this…I never travel at high speeds for long. I personally do not feel anything on my bike is suited to support rpm’s of 13K and the speeds thst go with it….90% of the time I’m at speeds of 25 or lower. Another 8%-9% is at 30-35 mph and on rare occasions I’ll get to the 50+ mph speeds testing changes. It’s that 1% or 3-4 seconds of high speed that may end up getting me too.
Dog away. I ordered a set for my Kent as an upgrade to the Wally world wheels I had. There aren't many 700C wheel options out there without going custom and lacing up my own. I may still do that if I can find a good set of double walled 700C rims I could lace to a set of Gemini hubs.

For now, I am on the axle the wheels came with, but I am considering ordering a set of Profile BMX axles if I can verify they will work with my setup.
Definitely pricey, but they are also CNC machined and properly heat treated.
 
Dog away. I ordered a set for my Kent as an upgrade to the Wally world wheels I had. There aren't many 700C wheel options out there without going custom and lacing up my own. I may still do that if I can find a good set of double walled 700C rims I could lace to a set of Gemini hubs.

For now, I am on the axle the wheels came with, but I am considering ordering a set of Profile BMX axles if I can verify they will work with my setup.
Definitely pricey, but they are also CNC machined and properly heat treated.
You send me two 26" with disc brake and I'll send you two 700c with disc brakes.
 
im gonna lean my bet more towards all the extra amount of torque being applied to the wheel. considering the fact that theyre still just bicycle wheels, but someone got the bright idea of using the rotor mount for a place to install a sprocket and now we have "motorized bike wheels".
 
Going faster than maybe 30 or so on what is still a BICYCLE is a bad idea.
Doing it on something made in China is suicidal.
 
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