failure of Aero 150 frames?

No failure yet, but the frames are 4 years old, with 10,000+ k on them.
Has anyone's Aero frames failed? I am wondering if I should get new
ones. I know how a flat Aero feels like (you don't go down), but a
failed frame could be very painful on a downhill.

I had mine fail a few months ago after about 4 years of used. Replaced
them with new shafts and used my old wheels and speed reducers. I
have to admit though they are heavy and akward compared to my new Elpex
F1's. Swithched back to my V2 850's a couple of months ago and liked
the solid wheels for smoother pavement, but the skate off sucked. Got
my Elpex 2 days ago and love the feel. Have to admit the arero's are
great on hard packed dirt.

Steve, How exactly did they fail? Did the new shafts retro-fit easily
(speed reducers)?

Not much packed dirt here in the Bay area - mostly coarse sand and
rocks.

My old original 150 skates failed at the rivets one by one, and i
replaced the rivets as they failed with SS bolts. These were never
catastrophic failures, and i was always able to ski home.

My 150CS shafts have failed four times, twice completely, one of which
resulted in a fall. These I use only for classic, with one outrigger
on the outside of each. They all failed in the same place, on the rear
fork on the outrigger side just above and behind where the shaft is
welded to the fork, with the crack propagating from the superior edge.
I've learned to inspect this area regularly, and I'm about to send two
shafts back to Jenex so thay can see how this crack starts.

The worst failure I've had was when one of the speed reducer levers
rattled loose of the speed reducer on rough chip-seal and went under
the front of the ski, jamming the front wheel and resulting in shredded
elbows. I never go out without knee and elbow pads now, and I replace
the little speed reducer springs when they get loose enough to rattle.

Randy

wrote:
Steve, How exactly did they fail? Did the new shafts retro-fit easily
(speed reducers)?

Not much packed dirt here in the Bay area - mostly coarse sand and
rocks.
Hi, somebody else posted their problems with the 150's, which were
similar to mine. Not a complete failure but a crack on the rear fork
that marked off with a felt tip pen. When the crack grew larger I
decided it was time for new shafts. I had simiar problems with the
rivets on the rear fork. All of them worked themselves loose and fell
out. I replaced them with bolts, nuts and washers which worked out
very well, but the crack worried me. I had jennex send me the new
shafts that are welded in place of rivets. Much better. I had them
drill the holes for new bindings and installed them, as well as the
"speed reducers" which did not work as well on the new shafts. Not
sure why, but had to click them down about 2-3 spaces before the
reducer met the tire. Then they worked fine. To be honest though I
can't get the 150's to track straight and they seem (the wheels) out of
round. Probably my faulty alignment. Still prefer my 850's or better
yet my elpex f1's on the right pavement. As boring as it sounds, I do
most of my rollerskiing in emty parking structures or schools to avoid
the distracion of passing cars.

I have been trying to bite my lip and ignore this thread, but I can't
any longer.

Has anyone ever had a non-Jenex ski fail like this? I have never heard
stories about failures like this about Elpex, ProSki, Marwe, etc. But it
seems like people are always writing to complain about Jenex products. Is
this just because more people use Jenex rollerskis than other brands? I
have not used Jenex products extensively, so I can't knowledgeably comment
on their long-term safety or durability, but as a casual observer, it sure
seems that there are some questions raised by all of the negative
experiences people are constantly sharing here.

Again, I don't want to slam Jenex, but I am interested to hear if these
stories are unique to Jenex products, or if there are similar issues going
on with other brands. So, if you have some scary stories about rollerskis
failing, let's hear them...

Good information to have:
1. Brand, model and age of skis at the time of failure
2. How many kms (or miles or hours) they had when they failed.
3. Were there any modifications or repairs made by the user, or were they
factory serviced?
4. What were the circumstances leading to the failure (ie rolling down a
10km steep hill with the speed reducers on max)
5. What type of terrain were they used on mostly
6. The grisly details about the failure. How did the ski fail, and what
was the result?
7. Wild speculation about the cause.

-Nathan
www.nsavage.com

"Steve" wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
Steve, How exactly did they fail? Did the new shafts retro-fit easily
(speed reducers)?

Not much packed dirt here in the Bay area - mostly coarse sand and
rocks.
Hi, somebody else posted their problems with the 150's, which were
similar to mine. Not a complete failure but a crack on the rear fork
that marked off with a felt tip pen. When the crack grew larger I
decided it was time for new shafts. I had simiar problems with the
rivets on the rear fork. All of them worked themselves loose and fell
out. I replaced them with bolts, nuts and washers which worked out
very well, but the crack worried me. I had jennex send me the new
shafts that are welded in place of rivets. Much better. I had them
drill the holes for new bindings and installed them, as well as the
"speed reducers" which did not work as well on the new shafts. Not
sure why, but had to click them down about 2-3 spaces before the
reducer met the tire. Then they worked fine. To be honest though I
can't get the 150's to track straight and they seem (the wheels) out of
round. Probably my faulty alignment. Still prefer my 850's or better
yet my elpex f1's on the right pavement. As boring as it sounds, I do
most of my rollerskiing in emty parking structures or schools to avoid
the distracion of passing cars.

I've had lots of roller skis fail ... but most of all of them were
brands that no longer exist. So no sense in posting anything about
them.

Concerning Jenex: I got new shafts for my Jenex 150's this year. I had
combo shafts which are a bit longer. These were great for dp workouts,
but clunky for skating. So I got new skate length shafts and switched
my wheels and speed reducers to them.

Immediately I had tracking problems. But then I realized that there
was a bit of play in the front for axles hole. This was likely because
I was using 6 year old, worn axles. Anyway - by twising the front tire
in line and tightening up the axle nut to the locking washer HARD - the
skis now track great.

One thing I was a bit unimpressed about was the speed reducers after I
moved them to the new shafts. The new skate shafts have two axle hole
sets - 1 for 150 wheels, 1 for the 125 wheels. But they only have 1
pair of holes to anchor the speed reducer. So - this location seems to
be the "compromise spot" for the speed reducer to service both
diameters of wheels. As a result - of the 5 detent positions in the
speed reducer -the bearing races don't touch rubber until you get to
detent #2, and don't actually start having an affect until you get to
detent #3. With the combi shafts all detents would work and offer
increasing resistance. But still ... I remain a 150 fan.

Dear Nathan:

I've only ever had Jenex rollerskis, so I don't know about other
brands. Other failures of Jenex products I've had over the years
include "chunking" of of their original urethane wheels on my old 800s,
and multiple failures of the suspension on my 900 Vladimir classics,
which are no longer made, apparently because of that problem.

I started out using Jenex skis because Len Johnson always seemed to
have good ideas, and still does. The problem is that I think he brings
his products to market too fast, without enough testing. I have stuck
with Jenex because our roads around here stink, and I need the
pneumatic wheels. I also appreciate the speed reducers, since I'm not
too comfortable descending at over 40 kph. If I thought that something
like the Marwes would handle our lousy chip-seal, I might switch.
Also, those big heavy pneumatic wheels roll over sticks, stones, and
holes that would stop other skis when I'm training after dark because
of long work hours.

You've been around the xc scene awhile. Any alternatives?

Randy

P.S. One of my more spectacular crashes had nothing to do with ski
failu Descending a smooth, fast hill, a flat and stiff road kill
squirrel somehow jammed into my front wheel. I continued to ski
another 25 yards or so on one ski, but gravity finally won. Cosmic
squirrel vengance!

I use Aeros b/c they are the only pneumatics available on the market.

I also have an old Jenex 650 pair (high speed ones, with 2 wheels in
the back). I had to change the bolts holding the wheels on them,
because instead of 1/4-20 bolts jenex used 10-24 bolts (with bearings
with 1/4" bore). I don't know who did at Jenex made that mistake of
putting a #10 bolt into a 1/4 bore bearing, and I had a nasty
conversation with Len via email on this. I sweared not to buy from
Jenex after this incident, by then the Aeros came around. I am happy
with my Aeros so far. My failture note was of a preventive nature.

I used to do intervals on a 12-15 minute hill and descend with V2 910s?
(the standard hard-wheeled r-skis). I would crank the speed reducers
down full. But I found that all of this load from such a long hill on
the one bearing race would wear them out and I had them seize up twice.
I bought another pair of speed reducers so I had them on front and
back. This worked out, no more bearing race failures. But I much
prefer the speed reducers on the Aero's. The double bearing race
reducers they have is the way to go.