ckcost

Username checks out.

News flash: PON owned company sponsors athletes different PON owned company. PON pawns!

@notthatfast: Both valid points. That also does not change the fact that this is happening. I'd argue that most designers design things specifically for a use case. Designing "product to be used in all kinds of ways that they couldn't imagine" would result in some pretty silly products that dont appeal to the target audience. Product lifecycles can be pretty long in some cases. Inserts are a more recent thing (~5 years). Once new rims hit the market that have been designed to consider insert impacts, all the other rims already on the market dont magically disappear. Again - two things can be true at the same time. I like and use inserts in some cases. Im not anti-insert. I just find it funny that these brands act like it's totally not a thing when in fact it is and it has a pretty reasonable and rational explanation.

Anyone doubting if inserts can cause damage to rims should ask themselves - Is the rim well a place that traditionally (with no insert) saw any notable loading? Hint: It did not. Therefore engineers designed that location of the rim to remove unnecessary weight. With SOME insert designs (likely combined with being run at too low PSI), a direct impact can heavily load the rim well and cause failures - usually originating from one of the holes drilled in the well. Typically (but not always) on lower-end alloy or extremely light rims (which may be why WAO has not seen this, Mr Duck). This is 100% the reason why Schwalbe Pro-Core never made to market in a notable way - because WC teams were blowing up rims from the inside at the well. If you dont believe me, go talk to a team or rider that was part of that testing. It's funny that Rimpact's response to this was "we've talked to the tire manufactures and it does not happen". Why would the tire mfg's be the ones that see the result of this? Go talk ask any larger RIM mfg and they will tell you that they do see it on occasion. This DOES NOT mean that the overall benefit of inserts is negated by this. If used properly (correct PSI) there is still can be benefits to inserts for certain use cases. Two things can be true at the same time, even in arguments on the internet.

@suspended-flesh: Not only Stark, but Gwin has been on them for years and years. Dak crushed on them last year. One of the commencal teams was on them for a few years. Word from the pits is the carbon rims have held up better than just about anything else on the WC scene. At Snowshoe a few years ago, their carbon rims were one of the few not grenading every few runs.