Espresso 43mm Wheels

I have been using a pair of Espresso wheels for a few weeks now, and thought it might be time to write a bit about them. They're £45.oo each.

The wheels are black, but come in different colours (white, aqua[light aquamarine blue], metallic[grey] ). They're suprisingly cheap, so I wasn't expecting anything too surprising. They're also 43mm deep, so the same depth as Velocity B43 rims, and H+Son SL42 (close enough), and the EigthInch Julians (close enough).

The wheels seem strong - they just look it; no flex at all. The paint is typical of being done in a huge factory, where on the inside, where the rimtape goes, the paint is patchy. I couldn't work out what type of paint it was, but it didn't seem anodized. In fact the paint has a slightly rubberized texture when you touch it. I took the Espresso decals off, even though the yellow colour suited the bike I tested them on. Maybe I should have left them on, but I'm not a big fan of decals on rims. The rims show dirt quickly, but a good wipe down had them always return to a like-new appearance.

The hubs are Quando, and there seems to be nothing wrong with them. Indeed, the freewheel rolls a lot smoother than a cheap freewheel I bought a little while ago. All I can say, is that they do the job, without fuss. I didn't test these wheels in rainy conditions though, as I felt better taking my Cannondale out instead.

The spokes appeared untensioned on delivery, though the wheels spun completely true. I discussed this with the retailer, and suggested offering a hand-trued wheel, as well as the factory machine-trued wheel. Some of the spokes felt soft, so after Vaidas tensioned them for me, I was ready to test them. I felt this was important, as I am a heavy guy, and machine-trued wheels wouldn't have stayed true long under my weight. Vaidas said that he did the best he could do, but he was concerned that he hadn't done a perfect job, as he said that wheels with that depth of rim, were harder to make totally true, if there is any non-roundness. I have cycled them for weeks, and they seemed as true as I have ever known wheels to be. One tip I picked up from Vaidas, is that the tube valve screw/retainer from Schwalbe, has one side that fits into the Schraeder sized holes in the rims. Its unusual, because a deep V rim would nearly always take road/race tryes and tubes, so the norm would be a thinner presta valve hole. There are rim adaptors to make the hole shrink from schraeder to presta size, but the cheap (and my) option choice was to just use the valve screw/retainer that has a raised inner section. The completely flat ones would be no use at all. One of the photos demontrates how it works. I used Bontrager 60mm length presta valve tubes.

I rode these wheels on my Giant Bowery for two reasons. One, my Bowery is black, and the second reason was, when I tried to fit the front wheel to my Capo, it wouldn't fit. This was weird, as the rear wheel fit fine. I haven't measured it, but I wonder if the front axle is 10mm, as is the rear. Front track axles are normally 9mm, and the rear is 10mm. Whatever the reason, the Bowery forks slotted onto them with no issue, but the Capo forks just would not sink onto it. I gave up. The Capo had been my first choice as test bike. Oh well.

The ride was a surprise. I had expected these wheels to be jarringly stiff, and transferred through my Bowery, and worse, Nitto B125 36cm steel bars, would rough going. The surprise, is that it wasn't. maybe its the tyres I used, which even at 130psi, are strangely cushioning. They were the Halo Courier Berlins of course.

The weight of the wheels didn't seem excessive, and not much more in riding conditions than my favourites....Rigida DP18rims with SystemEx hubs. Being a bit heavier, I did feel that on hills, but no real benefit in aerodynamics. As if a parachute like me could ever get aerodynamic benefit from anything.

Still, they worked, and I will continue using them, and update this later, to make this a long-term test. So far, so good. For the price, they're really a pleasant surprise.

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