Carbon rims

Have a look at what isn't available from a UK supplier, but that people are talking about on forums.

The new wider profile road rims for example, and the clincher 29er/cx rims.

... and the clincher 29er/cx rims.

I have to resist these daily. They arent that much lighter than my blunts of the same size and width (all things considered). But I needs them, I wants them.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330839558633?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Yep, I am looking at rims for Penguin #2, disc bakes so clinchers make perfect sense.

What size tyres you thinking about?

In my opinion carbon is a brilliant material for rims. But even alu rims fail at the bead. Totally plucked out of the ether. But I tend to stay under 100 psi. Which means a minimum of 25mm rear tyre size.

What, no 48h drilling?

Very much depends on the fork- I want mudguards and the largest tyres I can run with them- but using a road disc fork to keep the front down.

I would run a 22/23mm front at 100 psi anyway. Its the back that needs a little more.

sounds like a nice wheelset. got any pictures?

Havent got any close ups but would be happy to take some if this doesnt do it for you haha.
http://www.lfgss.com/post3285249-16401.html

Have a look at what isn't available from a UK supplier, but that people are talking about on forums.

The new wider profile road rims for example, and the clincher 29er/cx rims.

I've got the wider 29er rims from http://www.light-bicycle.com on my 29er and I've been very impressed with them. They've stood up to serious abuse, and they're very easy to run tubeless if you fit Bontrager Rhythm rim tapes. In fact, I've got another pair of rims sat in Customs at the moment to go on my CXer.

If they were available at a reasonable price in the UK (avoiding the delays and the potential customs problems) then I certainly would've bought some.

That's very interesting- what tyres are you going to run with the new ones?

What drilling did you go for? Did you get wheels, or rims and then build them?

That's very interesting- what tyres are you going to run with the new ones?

What drilling did you go for? Did you get wheels, or rims and then build them?

I'm going to try using Vittoria Cross XG Pros with the new CX wheels. They're 32 hole (to match the cheap Hope hubs I got on eBay) while the 29er wheels are 28 hole on Novatec hubs, laced 2x, with Racing Ralph tyres. Just got the rims and built them myself, with DT Comp spokes for the 29er and CX-Rays for the CXer. Although I haven't built the CX wheels yet as there appears to be a worldwide shortage of 284mm black CX-Rays.

I'm unsure about spoke count- if 28h has survived mountain biking though!

28h should be fine in my experience. Mine are on a full-rigid carbon bike, and despite keeping up with some full-sus bikes on some reasonably rocky descent in the Yorkshire Dales on my last proper MTBing holiday the wheels held up with no problems. And I'm not exactly a featherweight rider, either in gravitational attractiveness or riding style...

What's the advantage of using crabon shallow rims over something like Stan's Iron Cross or Crest?

From the Light-Bicycle site they appear to be about the same weight.

Supposedly they're stiffer and stronger than an aluminium rim of an equivalent weight. I've got them because I'm a bit of a carbon fibre fetishist sometimes.

Only thing with imports from china/asia is you have no comeback/warrenty if anything does go wrong unlike buying from a named brand. Somoetimes its worth paying the extra for the warranty/comeback

Not true- I had an issue with my first set, sent photographs to China, they replaced the rims for free (bar postage).

Anyway- http://www.lfgss.com/post3352684-40023.html

Danstuff is about right on the comparative strength and (importantly) stiffness of carbon vs. alloy. When dinosaurs roamed the Earth I had a pair of Mavic GEL 280 rims weighing surprise, surprise, 280g which is comparable to a modern carbon rim. They had the strength and stiffness of extruded custard.

Havent got any close ups but would be happy to take some if this doesnt do it for you haha.
http://www.lfgss.com/post3285249-16401.html

looks nice, we have a very similiar build taste I see

Have a look at what isn't available from a UK supplier, but that people are talking about on forums.

The new wider profile road rims for example, and the clincher 29er/cx rims.

This.

Also if you could find wider profile mid-depth road rims but with an alu brake track I would def take a pair.

Only thing with imports from china/asia is you have no comeback/warrenty if anything does go wrong unlike buying from a named brand. Somoetimes its worth paying the extra for the warranty/comeback

To quote a good friend and innovator of carbon wheels (Cees Beers) "there are lives on the line". Carbon bicycle components not engineered for safety are unfortunately all too common.

Many carbon bicycle components vendors (especially Chinese but they are not alone) are, I've found, more focused upon responding quickly to market demand rather than spending much time on technical details especially when most customers can't tell the difference--- much less are prepared to spend any additional money or accept heavier products.

The UCI impact testing is not a sufficient test of wheel safety--- as if these Chinese wheels have been UCI certified--- as it just tests frontal imacts such as hitting a curb (or wall). There is no testing of failure modes, fatigue or reliability. The wheel is not randomly selected but supplied by the vendor.

The question one has to ask: "Why does one even want carbon wheels"? Especially when one is not a elite level competitor? Even when products are properly designed things can go wrong when some of the limitations are not correctly respected--- as Tyler Hamilton can attest after his 2002 crash.

Warrenty is, I think, the least problem.

Doing it right is pushing the envelope to extremes and "one size does not fit all". At Olympics level it can make sense to go the distance. The cost of a set of custom carbon wheels is small change among the total costs to the national squadra--- and the potential gains for the rider. In Olympic track wheels are part of a multivariate equation that includes frame design and even specific training.

If one is keen on lightweight wheels I'd just look to "old school" alloy tubular rims, light spokes and good hubs. These rims might be obsolete for modern road wheels due to their extreme dish and dual-pivot calipers but singlespeed/track wheels don't, of course, have dish--- and bikes have no calipers to worry about.

A wheel made with one of these rims and modern spokes is cheap, light and reliable--- and L'Eroica notwithstanding NOS old school rims are still about at affordable prices.

Danstuff is about right on the comparative strength and (importantly) stiffness of carbon vs. alloy. When dinosaurs roamed the Earth I had a pair of Mavic GEL 280 rims weighing surprise, surprise, 280g which is comparable to a modern carbon rim. They had the strength and stiffness of extruded custard.

The GEL280--- far from a favorite rim (thin walls and hard anodization are not a good pair) --- can make good wheels but its easy to do them wrong. Back then you probably used Robergel 3 star spokes and had under and non-uniform tensioned wheels--- its difficult with the GEL280 to find the sweet spot in tension before the spokes pull through and the Robergel spokes were extremely non-uniform. Wheels made from the GEL280 can benefit greatly from today's spokes and techniques (tensiometers instead of feel or sound) .

To add insult to injury I can even imagine that you used the GEL280 on a road bicycle with 126mm rear.. they were afterall sold as road rims (and a 36 spoke GEL280 wheelset was not much worse than some of the low spoke count boutique wheels Mavic served up in the 1990s)....

I'd jump right in, if you could source some 23mm wide deep rims...

I need some rims, Group buy?

^^^Some nice FUD up there but I understand the sentiment.

It makes sense to have a pair of deep section crabons for 'Cross when things get really muddy.

For all other purposes I'm inclined to agree. Although they look shit-hot.