# Easton Quality?



## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

I've got about 7 hours to decide if I want to spend $450 for an Easton EA90XC 29er wheelset for my road (cross) bike.
EA90 XC 29"

I'm a 175lb old guy that's a spinner and not a masher. The roads I ride are in generally good condition and I avoid potholes.

These wheels are fairly lightweight at 1700g. The rims are 24mm wide with 19mm internal width.
I'll be using 25mm tires with latex tubes, probably around 90psi to start.

I found one review that said the rims cracked at the spoke holes and another that said the bearings lasted less than a year.

Comments on Easton quality? TIA


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## blitespeed (Mar 2, 2013)

Randy99CL said:


> I've got about 7 hours to decide if I want to spend $450 for an Easton EA90XC 29er wheelset for my road (cross) bike.
> EA90 XC 29"
> 
> I'm a 175lb old guy that's a spinner and not a masher. The roads I ride are in generally good condition and I avoid potholes.
> ...


That is a Mt bike wheel. Will it fit your road bike?


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## Typetwelve (Jul 1, 2012)

Personally, I do not own them...for a reason. Their wheels (as well as others) were on my list to buy for the past 6 months. During the off season I did nothing but read about wheels for months...all kinds of brands.

Time and a time again I read about newer Easton wheels popping spokes and sometimes cracking rims. I had a line on a real nice used set on the cheap and still passed them up. When I pressed the seller on why she would sell such a nice wheel set for a loss (and told her I wasn't interested)...she told me she had been popping spokes (and she weights 130lbs...as opposed to my 170). I passed.


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## SauronHimself (Nov 21, 2012)

I don't know if this helps, but here you can see the process Easton uses at least for their carbon wheels.


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## Mr_Clean (Feb 12, 2012)

I've had experience with Easton MTB wheels twice - XC One 26 and EA90XC for 29. I never had issues with spokes at 180lbs. The tension of the Sapims held up well. I never babied those wheels either. 

The hubs have stupid adjustable end caps which always come loose. I had my older 26 wheels repaired under warranty. later on I had to make a spacer out of thin wire once just to keep them in place. With the EA90XCs... Same thing. Oh, you'll be swapping bearings often too. They have very poor seals. Although they rolled well, and were light, I sold them. Never looked back since then.


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## mann2 (Oct 16, 2012)

Not first hand info, unfortunately, but I was eyeing some nice easton aero rims a few months back. Good thing I did some googling and found some issue with the spokes. Stayed away. 

When they do work, local feedback is that they're not great but not bad either.


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## CleavesF (Dec 31, 2007)

I own two sets. One for road (EA90 SLX) and mtb (XC One). 

Over many rides, I've had zero issues. 6 years on EA90, 3 years on XC One.


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## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

Many thanks for the responses!

One hour left.

I've got a Trek CrossRip; basically a relaxed geo, disc-braked road bike.
The stock wheels carry 32mm cross tires and are heavy. I'll keep and switch to those for gravel trails and light off-roading but 95% of the time the bike will be on the road.

For a few months I've been researching wheels and these Eastons look good for the money. At this sale price I wouldn't save much by buying the components to build my own. They're new and have a two year warranty.

I've found quite a few reviews online and most seem to like them. There are reports of problems but many of those riders weigh 200+ and are all off-roaders; I wonder how they'll work on the road where they won't get such a pounding.

I better decide quickly!


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## svard75 (Jun 10, 2011)

Randy99CL said:


> Many thanks for the responses!
> 
> One hour left.
> 
> ...


Are you positive the hub width is the same between those 29er MTB spec hubs and your cross bike spacing between dropouts? I seem to recall MTB specific hubs are wider in the rear something like 135mm vs 130mm? I know you can probably just widen the frame but how will that affect the geometry of the disk brake bosses?


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## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

svard75 said:


> Are you positive the hub width is the same between those 29er MTB spec hubs and your cross bike spacing between dropouts?


You are right; you do have to make sure which axle length your frame is set up for.
My cross frame is set for 135mm. Most of the new disc-braked road and cross bikes are going with 135mm because of the space taken up by the rotor. I expect that getting the flanges 5mm farther apart may help the stability of the wheel.

I found quite a few reviews that were very positive.
So I did order the wheels just before midnight and usually get things within a week.

I'll check them over and ride them hard and see if I like them. I'm really wondering if the rear wheel will last; 24 DB spokes with the drive stretching them one way and the rotor stressing them the opposite way.

Nashbar has a great return policy and they do have a two year warranty from Easton.

The only real concern that I have is that they are totally proprietary; I'll have to check the prices of spokes and nipples.


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## svard75 (Jun 10, 2011)

Glad you got it all figured out. I have the easton ea90xc 26ers on my MTB and love them. They're a bit heavier than my xc ones. I'm a fan of Easton's alloy based wheels and other than having to check the hub axle adjustment knob every so often I think they're a great set of wheels. Enjoy!


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## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks svard!

I was amazed when I heard a knock at my door at 6pm last night and it was UPS with the wheels! I ordered them Sunday night and received them Wednesday; I've never gotten anything that fast!

The wheels look great! 
They really are light at 1628g for the set (without skewers). Don't need rim tape so that saves an ounce or two per wheel.
They're "tubeless ready" and came with the valves installed. 
The spokes feel and sound very evenly tensioned.
The red hubs and nipples perfectly match the other red-anodized pieces on the bike.

The rims are 24mm wide with 19mm internal width so they fit into the "wide rim" category. I'll be running 25mm road tires so it will be interesting to see how the wheels look and handle.

The only thing I don't like are the billboard graphics; I've done the bike in "stealth" finish and the wheels will really stand out. They're painted, not stickered, so I may repaint them some time in the future.

View attachment 283518


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## mtnbikerva1 (Jan 30, 2009)

It is cheaper and better to have wheels built/custom.


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## Blue CheeseHead (Jul 14, 2008)

4 years and 15,000 miles on my EA90SL's and I have had 2 broken spokes. Not bad for a 200# guy. I have replaced the bearings. I would rate them as "okay". Not bad, but not great.


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## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

mtnbikerva1 said:


> It is cheaper and better to have wheels built/custom.


Thanks for your opinion but any time someone makes a "blanket" statement like this they are wrong. 
You're saying that in the whole history of the world no one ever got a better and cheaper wheelset by ordering prebuilt.

Retail on my wheels is $960, I got them for $455.
As I said earlier, I priced out the components and labor and it would have only saved me a few bucks to have some built. And I got these in 3 days, not three weeks or months.


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## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

Blue CheeseHead said:


> 4 years and 15,000 miles on my EA90SL's and I have had 2 broken spokes. Not bad for a 200# guy. I have replaced the bearings. I would rate them as "okay". Not bad, but not great.


Thanks Blue.
I'm hoping they'll last me a while cause I'm a 170lb old guy and will only use them on the road. 
I consider them an inexpensive wheelset and am not expecting miracles.


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## mtnbikerva1 (Jan 30, 2009)

Randy99CL said:


> Thanks for your opinion but any time someone makes a "blanket" statement like this they are wrong.
> You're saying that in the whole history of the world no one ever got a better and cheaper wheelset by ordering prebuilt.
> 
> Is it not the same to say IT IS NOT CHEAPER TO BUY CUSTOM WHEELS?
> ...


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## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

mtnbikerva1 said:


> Randy99CL said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for your opinion but any time someone makes a "blanket" statement like this they are wrong.
> ...


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## svard75 (Jun 10, 2011)

mtnbikerva1 said:


> Randy99CL said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for your opinion but any time someone makes a "blanket" statement like this they are wrong.
> ...


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## mtnbikerva1 (Jan 30, 2009)

I thought it was a 2 way exchange of words and my attempt to communicate with all not just the guy that said I was wrong.
Is the information I passed on here not true?
If so what is not true?
If any person is happy with off the shelf wheels, I am happy they are happy.
I was and am not the one the pissed off one here.
I was just trying to educate people.
Not everyone knows about hand built wheels and what the option has to offer.
Who is John Galt?
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.


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## CleavesF (Dec 31, 2007)

So the problem is that lots of people got burned by Sapim. That is when Performance Bikes sold the EA90SE wheelsets, people bought them like crazy because the price was insane. 

Unfortunately, those wheelsets were all built with a bad "recalled" batch of Sapim CX-Ray spokes that... BROKE on everyone. 

Everyone went apeshit, sent the wheelsets to Easton and they would replace them over and over. Unfortunately for them, they replaced the broken spokes with more of the bad batch. 

When you burn customers multiple times like this due to poor quality of your starting materials people will say bad things. 

I didn't buy my EA90 SLX at Performance Bike, which is why I believe I never got THAT problem. I also didn't buy my XC Ones are Performance Bike, and I never got the "shot" bearings/hub problems people all over the universe were having either. 

I'm aware of all the problems people have with the wheelset I own, but they've never happened to me after many miles of use and abuse if you're talking about the XC Ones. 

If there's a serious problem with Easton wheels, I'll be the first one to rat them out and say it. But the hub/bearing issue is user error (the preload adjustment) and the spokes breaking is really bad luck on Easton's part. 

It doesn't matter where you get your wheelset. If you build the wheel with even one bad spoke that is a larger gauge, or with other defects then it will break eventually. Just like aluminum nipples.


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## jmscsa (Jan 17, 2010)

I have a set of Easton EA 90 SLs on my road bike. Not deep disc type wheels at all, like 25 mm deep types. Ridden them for a couple of years and only ever had one problem. Unfortunately that problem was a broken spoke in the middle of an Ironman and I ended up riding the second 56 miles with a spoke duct taped together after I got a piece of tape out of my bag at special needs. Other than that bad timing I've had no problems with my Eastons and for what they cost they were a bood buy.


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