Zipp 303 Firecrest freehub broken after 1 season on the road - anyone else?

[kode54]

Bearing seals not what they used to be? I opened up a set of Look pedals for a friend....completely rusted. Hubs on a Campagnolo Shamal wheels...bearings completely rusted as well. He rides alot...and that includes in the rain, but didn't surprise me. I went down the rabbit hole, so I took apart his headset, dry as a bone with post rust bits in it. Don't ask about BB bearings.

So then a word to those who want their gear to last: pack end caps with heavy grease, same for dust covers on bottom brackets, similar treatment for headsets. If you can't see clean grease peeking out a bit, then it is time for cleaning and re-grease. This must be standard operating procedures for most of us here. The shame of it is that a lot of brand new stuff comes off the shelf with inadequate protection and need the grease treatment before use. Probably a factor in the OP's case.

This thread proves nothing. You understand the difference between statistics and anecdotes. The discussion of "zipp hubs bad", and "carbon fiber explodes" is probably the most common cycling forum discussion topic. Happens every season. I don't doubt the op had a bad experience. Otoh, how many zipp hubs do you think are out there without problems? And the circumstances and details are not clear. Hub model? Water ingress? Pictures of damage? In any case, I've got a set of firecrest 303's with the zr1 hubs that have been totally problem free. Go figure.

A new hub should be able to survive one season of good weather riding. A hub should be able to survive one season of any kind of riding (OK, not muddy cx). Zipp failed on this one, simple as that. We don't need data to tell us that this particular hub failed long before it should have. It would be nice to have failure rate data on a large sample. I wonder how Zipp would compare to leading brands. My guess is not so great. BTW, have you ever heard of a hub other than Zipp grinding its pawls into little bits? I haven't.

Most likely although most folks that buy new wheels or any other part that has bearings...those bearings being sealed, you would think they would last a bit longer than a season. I typically build my bikes from ground up and where there's a possibility of water getting in, I tend to use a waterproof grease like Phil's. As far as bottom brackets and headsets, I make sure the grease is on and around the insides and outsides of the bearings.