11/26/14 6:45 PM

http://www.bikerumor.com/2014/11/26/steve-hed-pioneer-of-the-aero-carbon-wheel-has-passed-away/

RIP, a true pioneer.

11/26/14 7:53 PM

Very sad. Another soul who never made it to retirement.

I got to meet him in 2000 as he had a booth at a gear expo held in Minnesoota that I happened to attend. Interesting self-taught type of guy who would take time to chat with anyone.

Someone on this forum used to know him. Might have been P Datars, but I'm not certain I got that right ??

11/27/14 6:56 AM

Yes, he and Paul spent quite a bit of wind tunnel time together.

11/27/14 7:35 AM

This morning's Bike Rumor has a follow up on yesterday's announcement. It has a statement from the company with an interesting biography of Steve.

11/27/14 8:52 AM

He certainly had a big impact on the industry.

Maybe different later but earlier HED was not easy to deal with and had poor quality control. Like some other wheel companies around that time. Marketed hard but didn't always deliver. Maybe that comes with being a pioneer.

11/29/14 1:40 PM

Someone has to pave the way for others and there's bound to be considerable trial and error involved. His death is a real shame and a significant loss to the industry.

11/29/14 2:10 PM

Pioneer at the customer's expense?

I seem to recall Sandiway cringes at the mention of the word ALPS. I am sorry to say/remember...

11/29/14 8:57 PM

Even the best intentioned manufacturer is going to have a quality issue or two at some point or another. What I look for is how the company deals with it when it happens. If they take care of their customers and make it right, I'm fine with that. I don't know what Sandiway's outcome was, but I hope it was positive in the long run.

11/30/14 12:37 PM

Wow, sorry to hear about Steve's death, may he RIP. Hard to believe the guy was only 3 years older than me.

Yeah Steve was somewhat of a regular at Texas A&M wind tunnel along with John Cobb...pioneers for sure. I spent 3 days with both those guys back in 1998 at A&M, a very memorable time.

Over the years I went through a large number of Hed wheels and generally they were good but when they weren't, Anne always took good care of me so I have nothing but good things to say about them. Not sure why, but lately I've been using Zipp wheels and actually don't have any Heds left in my 'collection'...it just kinda happen/evolved that way.

Cheers, Paul.

12/1/14 5:46 PM

Sparky has a good memory. Yeah, the HED Alps.

The first set I had was severely undersized. I could not get a tire to stay on. I can't believe they don't test the wheels.

The second set I had was undersized on the rear wheel. It could blow off the rim sometimes.

The dangers of tire blowoff at speed should not be underestimated. My griping about advertised and real weights seems trivial by comparison. But back then, everyone was lying about the weights.

12/1/14 6:44 PM

"Sparky has a good memory"

About some more obscure things it seems. ;)


I remember I went with the Zipp 404 after your plight.

And soon after had to have both rims replaced and was without them for a while as well as being without the money...

The non welded seams in the AL brake tracks, especially the rear was foobar. They decided they would only replace the rear with the welded version, the front not being bad enough.

Which would leave me with a non matched brand new set of expensive wheels. I pissed and moaned enough to have them do the front for 225.00 IIRC charge. So then the new wheels got more expensive after like 6 rides on them. I did get the original front rim to sell. Someone here got it IIRC, for a PT wheel...

But nothing as bad as tires blowing off. So I got to pay the pioneer price too. Although I did get them for cost, so after a few seasons still got what I paid for them. I don't think Sandi faired as well.

The early 'Aero' clinchers.... Zed...