ma3 rims?

hwttdz said:

Anybody used ma3 rims? work pretty well? just looking for something durable and I can get them for about a third of the open pros.

ma3, 36 3x, 105 hubs, may not be light or pretty but they should be pretty close to indestructable.

i have a set on MA-40 rims on record hubs that i used for training and everyday riding.
they are pretty much bulletproof. they were the open-pros of their day. widely loved.

i dont know MA-3, but if they anything like the MA-40s,
they would be great value for the $. 3x36 is strong.

hwttdz said:

Anybody used ma3 rims? work pretty well? just looking for something durable and I can get them for about a third of the open pros.

ma3, 36 3x, 105 hubs, may not be light or pretty but they should be pretty close to indestructable.

I have a good friend who had them. He had cracks around the eyelets on both wheels. They were factory/machine built wheels. He was covered for replacement and the same thing happened again. He went back for a second replacement and the shop asked him what he was doing to make them fail... as if he had some reason to want to make them fail. He weighs 160 pounds and rides 250 - 300 miles a week. They were built 36 spoke so he thought they would be "bomb proof". These cracks made the wheels lose true. Both times it was both wheels and within 3 - 4 weeks of riding.
The shop where he bought the bicycle rebuilt using Mavic A319 rims. They look almost the same as the MA3 but are 50 -60 grams heavier. He has ridden them now for 2 months without trouble. I don't know price and availability of the A319 rims.

Wow that's a little frightening, thanks for the info. But then again it could have just been a bad set of rims.

Well on road bike review it looks like only 1 out of 10 had that problem so I think I'm going to give it a run and pray for luck.

hwttdz said:

Wow that's a little frightening, thanks for the info. But then again it could have just been a bad set of rims.

Well on road bike review it looks like only 1 out of 10 had that problem so I think I'm going to give it a run and pray for luck.

I've had great service from MA-3 rims. I had a set built last year by my LBS that held up great all season. Forgot the gram count, but they're not all that heavy either.

My LBS would much rather have sold me the MAVIC SL set for $850 of course (they are in a high-rent building). They tried hard to convince me how much faster I could climb by saving 300 grams on my wheelset, etc.

Don't believe you can fault MA-3 quality for the cracking issue either. If they are cracking around the spoke holes in a few weeks, I'd say the spokes were way overtensioned, basically destroying the wheel. The durability of any wheel still comes down to build quality.

hwttdz said:

Wow that's a little frightening, thanks for the info. But then again it could have just been a bad set of rims.

Well on road bike review it looks like only 1 out of 10 had that problem so I think I'm going to give it a run and pray for luck.

Yes, Mavic has had some quality issues... and they don't seem to care or do much to get better.
I don't think it was an over tensioning issue either, as there were more cracks around the eyelets on the left rear side.... both times
It certainly could have been a build issue as the wheels were machine built.
The shop stood behind it all the way and he is now riding trouble free with the Mavic A319 rims. I might also mention that he uses 28 - 30 mm wide tires.
If you can deal with someone who will provide replacement coverage, it certainly would be a good idea.