***9/4/2015*** Parts sold by Nova Supply have been corrected and no longer have this problem.
I probably should have posted this back in mid April when I found this. I was giving some folks time to react. Time ran out today.
The Allotec C-43-1 142×12 DT modular dropouts are being used by more and more people in the US and around the world. I used some of these on my Flowmaster 2 frame. I like to experiment with different things and I like cheap stuff. There was a big problem with them but I found out in time.
These images show the problem and compare them with my fix. It’s an easy fix.
Both lug sides are 16mm thick. Using a DT RWS 142×12 axle, because of the width of the non-drive side lug, very few threads engage in the drive side lug. This is a very serious problem.There is very little thread to hold and the shank isn’t in the overlap area as intended. This makes the system very weak and prone to failure, either user generated or through use. This compounded by threads where the highest forces are focused. Not cool.
To fix this, I cut the non-drive side down to 8mm of lug. I probably should have cut to 9 or 9.5mm thick but it is far better than the 16mm supplied. I didn’t take pictures of the process, but you can see the result here. This can be done on a mill or lathe.
The official word from Nova, a US distributor is: “For the DT Swiss version, the non-drive side insert that is 16mm wide should be 10.9mm wide for the threads to be flush on the drive side.”
Be careful out there folks. Always look over your parts and make sure you know they are right.
