You are reading a single comment by @miro_o and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@miro_o
There are some thoughts on Sputniks on page 20.
My thoughts...
They're very, very strong and unlikely to crack, are fantastically wide and stable (25mm width means your tyres hold loads of air). They're great for touring and travelling with and like most rims of this type are really easy to build. However they are heavier than normal road rims (good for training but add challenge in the hills) and I suspect that alloy is quite soft – though that's hard to be certain as my set are have taken a real thrashing in a water and sand. Even at this high rate of wear there is enough metal on those brake tracts to ride a continent!
One well documented downside to Sputniks is getting smaller tyres seated. I've had issues with 25 and 28mm tyres and so have many others. It's not the tyres, it's the shape of the rim. At home you can overinflate a bit and get tyres seated with a bash here and there but at the roadside that's isn't always an option and is always a PITA.
I'd take a look at Rigida Grizzlys which are also 25mm but don't have steel girders running through them. I've no idea if they suffer the same tyre-seating niggles.