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Chinese carbon rims..... Anyone got them are they any good?

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Chinese carbon rims..... Anyone got them are they any good?
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flag sq225917
Posted: Feb 15, 2014 at 6:15 Quote
Ok, finally sorted mine they are 750 front and 920 rear, which puts them slap bang at the same weight as my old Crossmax SX 2010 which felt epically light on my Demo. They've built up easily, no dramas. They tension up really quickly compared to alloy rims. Think of the difference between the end stroke ramp on a coil or air shock and you're there. The nipples are lubed to help stop what I expect to be moderate galvanic corrosion over time. (If carbon windsurf booms with titanium fittings can corrode over time in salt water then I see no reason not to take any precaution I can with these.)

They are straight, with no hop, almost zero deviation on my Park stand, maybe a fraction of a mm but no more. Got to say I'm pretty pleased with them. I'll put some pictures on line in a while.
flag sq225917
Posted: Feb 15, 2014 at 8:17 Quote
Ok so here are the pics, you can judge for yourself how high/low the quality is and what you get for your money. Each picture highlights a flaw in production or what i consider to be a weak design/process choice. But you pays your money and takes your choice. For the price for a pair of rims I can afford to smash 3-4 pairs before I could buy one ENVE rim, so the numbers work for me.

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This is a small void on the edge of the rim, maybe 1.5mm in length.

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Interior shot of the rim showing the biax spoke bed. This appears to run from sidewall to sidewall it isn 't just the spoke bed area, more of a 30mm strip than a 10mm one. Fun ny they don't mention this, especially as it is how it should be.

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Longitudinal strip that joins L/R side of rims and ties the sidewalls together. Looks a little sloppy, also a touch light on resin at the edge. The lack of resin fill indicates a less than optimal compression which will relate to the bagging fit.

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A bit more pitting. These look like bubbles in the carbon, this implies not enough vacuum or mold pressure and potentially too high a resin viscosity, maybe cure temp issues.

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Spot the weakest part of the rim. looking like a bit of clusterf_ck here. Lots of seams within a short area, most of them at 90 degrees to each other not bias cut into the cloth to give overlap. I'm guessing they rely too much on preforms when putting the rims together.

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Regardless of all these issues, most of which aren't that great in the big scheme of things, I'm happy with the finished product and very happy with the weight and price. But knowledge is power, so i hope this helps people make more informed decisions.

Let's see how they hold up to some rock gardens and a good thrashing on their first ride tomorrow...
flag iffy
Posted: Feb 15, 2014 at 9:33 Quote
good info, thanks!
flag sq225917
Posted: Feb 15, 2014 at 16:59 Quote
Slapped on the tyres this evening and they are by far the tightest rims I've ever owned. I've never not been able to hand fit and remove tyres with any other wheelset I've owned. To get these on I ended up having to use two tyre levers, Christ knows how I'll get them off. There's no chance these would ever roll off the rim no matter how low you run your tyres pressures.

The tyre profile is also much changed, should be plenty more grip on the sides with these now.
flag strickland-propane
Posted: Feb 15, 2014 at 17:20 Quote
Wow, excellent information. I don't think I've learned so much from a simple forum thread. Thanks for taking the time to give the info in detail and post the different photos. I look forward to hearing the ride report. The value of this thread is immense vs speculation, or even certain magazine reviews!
flag sq225917
Posted: Feb 16, 2014 at 0:43 Quote
Wow, thanks.

I'll take some pics of various tyres profiles on the rim and show them against my 21mm Mavic rim. Just looking at my Dirty Dan's the difference is pronounced.
flag sq225917
Posted: Feb 16, 2014 at 9:00 Quote
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These look so Moto now.

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Dirty Dan, about 4mm wider at the widest point and a lot less curved over the top
flag sbrdude1
Posted: Feb 16, 2014 at 11:43 Quote
Thanks for the quality pics and qc report on yhe rims dude! My second set is on the way from China now so hopefully as soon as I get them I'll lace them up and be rolling.
On a different subject. For my new build I'm looking at Sapim C Xrays or Lasers. I know the Lasers are much cheaper and pretty much a round version of the C Xrays and the same weight. What I really want to know is which one is more durable for Trail/XC? I'll be running Sapim Polyax nips and lace them to classic DT 350 hubs.
flag sq225917
Posted: Feb 16, 2014 at 14:36 Quote
I genuinely doubt there is any difference in terms of durability unless you are taking rock hits to spokes in which case I'd expect the round spokes to shrug the impacts off better. One thing worth noticing is that the bend in the CX-ray is larger than in the same DT spoke and as such there is slightly more spoke at the bend to fail. Were I building from scratch again i might consider washers under the spoke flange.

But really, I'm never likely to kill these wheels, though I ride DH I'm pretty gentle.
flag matte1988
Posted: Feb 24, 2014 at 1:59 Quote
I like Chinese carbon rims. They are great.Big Grin
flag delfrmboulder
Posted: Feb 25, 2014 at 18:33 Quote
Looking to echo the same sentiment. Thank you for your review of the carbon rims. I took a leap of faith, purchasing 27.5 30mm width MTB wheels from Light-bicycle yesterday. My bike will shed approx 500g, which from what I've read is substantial considering its rotational weight.
flag sbrdude1
Posted: Feb 25, 2014 at 19:47 Quote
delfrmboulder wrote:
Looking to echo the same sentiment. Thank you for your review of the carbon rims. I took a leap of faith, purchasing 27.5 30mm width MTB wheels from Light-bicycle yesterday. My bike will shed approx 500g, which from what I've read is substantial considering its rotational weight.
That's about a pound where you will feel it most. Your bike will ride very differently in good ways.
flag sq225917
Posted: Feb 26, 2014 at 1:09 Quote
Apologies for not following up on the initial review, I'm off the bike for a few weeks with sprained ankle and ruptured ligaments.

photo
flag sbrdude1
Posted: Feb 26, 2014 at 21:36 Quote
https://www.pinkbike.com/u/sbrdude1/album/wwwlight-bicyclecom-29r-no-bead-hook-rims/

 


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