NOBL or We Are One

Author Message
flag dancingwithmyself
Posted: Oct 26, 2022 at 3:49 Quote
Kango wrote:
dancingwithmyself wrote:
Kango wrote:
Does anyone else find that WA1 have really bad tape jobs.

It's how slick the carbon\gloss\whatever is. Although, I think all factory tape jobs suck.

Scuff the inside of the rims with sandpaper, clean well, use DT Swiss Tape, and do a good job applying. Rock solid after that.

Mixing sealant and aluminum nipples no bueno. Top notch taping greatly underappreciated art.

Which I'm curious what is more reliable. Overlap with narrow tape which is what WA1 does or just single layer of wide tape fitting the inner diameter.

I've never had a problem with a high-quality, well-applied single layer of correct a width tape.
flag blamalamadingdong
O+
Posted: Oct 26, 2022 at 8:06 Quote
i have a 2022 set of WAO Unions. i don't know what's on the rims, but they're like Teflon coated. having said that, the tape job i got from factory was good and has not leaked (yet)

A lot of my friends have been saying XYZ brand has a lifetime warranty, but they dont read the fine print. most lifetime warranties these days are for materials and workmanship which is very very very different than reserve and WAO's lifetime warranty.

10/10 would recommend WAO. although, i will admit, they are a bit stiffer than I hoped vs their marketing on compliance
flag noakeabean
Posted: Oct 26, 2022 at 15:05 Quote
blamalamadingdong wrote:
i have a 2022 set of WAO Unions. i don't know what's on the rims, but they're like Teflon coated. having said that, the tape job i got from factory was good and has not leaked (yet)

A lot of my friends have been saying XYZ brand has a lifetime warranty, but they dont read the fine print. most lifetime warranties these days are for materials and workmanship which is very very very different than reserve and WAO's lifetime warranty.

10/10 would recommend WAO. although, i will admit, they are a bit stiffer than I hoped vs their marketing on compliance
Just looked @ the XYZ wheels. 12 month manufacturer defect warranty. Nothing like Santa Cruz, Nobl, or WAO
flag blamalamadingdong
O+
Posted: Oct 27, 2022 at 7:53 Quote
noakeabean wrote:
Just looked @ the XYZ wheels. 12 month manufacturer defect warranty. Nothing like Santa Cruz, Nobl, or WAO

is XYZ a brand? i was using it as a placeholder for all the other brands offering lifetime that arent true lifetime.

same goes with bike frames. it is highly unlikely to get a warranty on workmanship and materials, as these things will typically be caught in QC
flag Shaque
Posted: Jun 29, 2023 at 8:19 Quote
I am starting my 3rd season on a set of WAO unions on an aluminum long-travel enduro bike. I think I put on 45 bike park days last year. (Yes, i know how lucky I am. I ride for science. Lol). I took my wheelset to our local bike shop/we are one distributor/certified whee
Builder who turned like 3 spokes and said the wheels were perfect. I’ve never had that with aluminum rims - ever. It was amazing!

My son was working on the trail crew at the bike park and got a “pro” deal through nobl. We purchased a rear enduro wheel and a rear downhill wheel (I think it was a TR 35 and a TR 37 if I remember correctly). Both were installed with a Cush core insert and brand new DH-casing maxxis DHR tires. Both of the nobl wheels broke within a day and a half of riding.

The boy riding the DH bike weighs about 150lbs. My son riding the enduro bike weighs 110 lbs. both of them broke the wheels in the garbanzo zone, for those who are familiar with whistler bike park. Yes, the boys ride advanced terrain, but I weigh almost twice as much as them and haven’t had a speck of a problem with WAO.

To lose riding days to a cracked wheel sucks. Even if Nobl had the world’s greatest replacement policy, you’re still stuck without a wheel. Nobl returned my money, no questions asked. But to me that’s not something to applaud. They should pay me for the lost time and headache of their crappy product.
flag Ob917
O+
Posted: Jul 1, 2023 at 8:05 Quote
WA1 wheels on all my bikes including my DH. Love them.
flag oldmanbucksaw
O+
Posted: Jul 19, 2023 at 11:45 Quote
Having built wheels in my shop using both NOBL and We Are One rims I can say that I prefer building with NOBL over WAO. The NOBL rims were cleaner out of the box. The WAO rims had carbon dust on the rim and the spoke holes were rough. The rough spoke holes created a lot of spoke wind-up and made tensioning difficult. The multiple seams on the We Are One Rim are a PITA when radial truing. This wasn't an issue with the NOBL rims. I haven't had experience with built wheels with either company, but if I were to recommend a carbon rim for wheel building it would be NOBL.
flag ybsurf
O+
Posted: Jul 19, 2023 at 16:44 Quote
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
Having built wheels in my shop using both NOBL and We Are One rims I can say that I prefer building with NOBL over WAO. The NOBL rims were cleaner out of the box. The WAO rims had carbon dust on the rim and the spoke holes were rough. The rough spoke holes created a lot of spoke wind-up and made tensioning difficult. The multiple seams on the We Are One Rim are a PITA when radial truing. This wasn't an issue with the NOBL rims. I haven't had experience with built wheels with either company, but if I were to recommend a carbon rim for wheel building it would be NOBL.
Probabaly have something to do with WA1 not hiding anything and keep the carbon natural.
flag lloydrm
Posted: Dec 12, 2023 at 20:06 Quote
riding-wild wrote:
I have a set of NOBL TR32s on my Epic Evo - I'm very happy with them and definitely would recommend. Great build quality, customer service, and seems like they can take more abuse than the bike in its current configuration. I also have a set of WAO Revive's on the way for that bike that I'm excited to compare against the TR32s.

Ultimately my plan is to put the TR32s on my Stumpy Evo for my local trails that aren't very rocky but have some chunk, keeping the stock Rovals for proper chunky days and/or backup if the experiment goes off the rails.

Will be interesting to see how they hold up, but the customer service and build quality give me enough confidence to give it a shot, which may say something useful for this thread.
how are these working for you?
flag pchappy
O+ FL
Posted: Dec 12, 2023 at 20:58 Quote
We are One for the win hands done for me. Nothing else matters
flag oldmanbucksaw
O+
Posted: Dec 16, 2023 at 0:33 Quote
ybsurf wrote:
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
Having built wheels in my shop using both NOBL and We Are One rims I can say that I prefer building with NOBL over WAO. The NOBL rims were cleaner out of the box. The WAO rims had carbon dust on the rim and the spoke holes were rough. The rough spoke holes created a lot of spoke wind-up and made tensioning difficult. The multiple seams on the We Are One Rim are a PITA when radial truing. This wasn't an issue with the NOBL rims. I haven't had experience with built wheels with either company, but if I were to recommend a carbon rim for wheel building it would be NOBL.
Probabaly have something to do with WA1 not hiding anything and keep the carbon natural.

That makes zero sense. What does "keep the carbon natural" even mean? It's a plastic.
flag Dr-YTMTB
Posted: Dec 16, 2023 at 7:10 Quote
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
ybsurf wrote:
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
Having built wheels in my shop using both NOBL and We Are One rims I can say that I prefer building with NOBL over WAO. The NOBL rims were cleaner out of the box. The WAO rims had carbon dust on the rim and the spoke holes were rough. The rough spoke holes created a lot of spoke wind-up and made tensioning difficult. The multiple seams on the We Are One Rim are a PITA when radial truing. This wasn't an issue with the NOBL rims. I haven't had experience with built wheels with either company, but if I were to recommend a carbon rim for wheel building it would be NOBL.
Probabaly have something to do with WA1 not hiding anything and keep the carbon natural.

That makes zero sense. What does "keep the carbon natural" even mean? It's a plastic.

They mean “unpainted”, was that not obvious?
flag Dr-YTMTB
Posted: Dec 16, 2023 at 7:13 Quote
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
ybsurf wrote:
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
Having built wheels in my shop using both NOBL and We Are One rims I can say that I prefer building with NOBL over WAO. The NOBL rims were cleaner out of the box. The WAO rims had carbon dust on the rim and the spoke holes were rough. The rough spoke holes created a lot of spoke wind-up and made tensioning difficult. The multiple seams on the We Are One Rim are a PITA when radial truing. This wasn't an issue with the NOBL rims. I haven't had experience with built wheels with either company, but if I were to recommend a carbon rim for wheel building it would be NOBL.
Probabaly have something to do with WA1 not hiding anything and keep the carbon natural.

That makes zero sense. What does "keep the carbon natural" even mean? It's a plastic.

They mean “unpainted”, was that not obvious?

WA1’s come largely unfinished, just carbon and no frills.

But they’re bombproof. My local wheel builder prefers to build with them, opposite to the experience of ybsurf
flag Dr-YTMTB
Posted: Dec 16, 2023 at 7:13 Quote
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
ybsurf wrote:
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
Having built wheels in my shop using both NOBL and We Are One rims I can say that I prefer building with NOBL over WAO. The NOBL rims were cleaner out of the box. The WAO rims had carbon dust on the rim and the spoke holes were rough. The rough spoke holes created a lot of spoke wind-up and made tensioning difficult. The multiple seams on the We Are One Rim are a PITA when radial truing. This wasn't an issue with the NOBL rims. I haven't had experience with built wheels with either company, but if I were to recommend a carbon rim for wheel building it would be NOBL.
Probabaly have something to do with WA1 not hiding anything and keep the carbon natural.

That makes zero sense. What does "keep the carbon natural" even mean? It's a plastic.

They mean “unpainted”, was that not obvious?

WA1’s come largely unfinished, just carbon and no frills.

But they’re bombproof. My local wheel builder prefers to build with them, opposite to your experience. And we’re literally in ENVE’s backyard, so he could get a LOT of support from them. Still primarily recommends WAO
flag oldmanbucksaw
O+
Posted: Dec 16, 2023 at 8:04 Quote
Dr-YTMTB wrote:
oldmanbucksaw wrote:
ybsurf wrote:

Probabaly have something to do with WA1 not hiding anything and keep the carbon natural.

That makes zero sense. What does "keep the carbon natural" even mean? It's a plastic.

They mean “unpainted”, was that not obvious?

No it wasn't. I've never seen a painted carbon rim. Do you know what brand bias means? Because you and the rest of the fan boys are definitely displaying it in this thread.

 


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