Light Bicycle wheel rims?

[ericoschmitt]

I got mine yesterday! 56mm deep 30mm wide rim brake and bitex hubs. 1459g
They are awesome. I'll write a full review with pics on computer later.

[ericoschmitt]

Got them! I'm in a boring waiting list at bank so I'm writing on phone... More pics in next post, theres a file limit.

[ericoschmitt]

Part 2

[ericoschmitt]

Part 3, bike and first ride.

TBH i couldn't ride much on first day. I was tired and it was an easy ride, so can't say anything about speed. Also can't really compare comfort because I pumped higher pressure, as newly installed tubeless tires leak some air before fully sealing.

Braking is great, if I brake hard front wheel only I can fly over the bars, so thats plenty braking power. Modulation is better than alloy.

Forgot to write about fitting tires. The 23mm are very hard to fit, and on alloy wheels I had to use two levers and brute force. On these it was hard but I did it with my hands only.
The rear tire, 25mm, was easier to fit, but harder to seal, I had to manually pop 80% of the beads in place and use a compressor pump and pop the last 20% of the bead.

Front tire on the other hand, I just pumped it.

Today I'll do some uphill sprinting, and tomorrow I'll climb the local murder hill, so I can really test braking and stiffness. And theres a chance it will rain.

Flatland speed will wait until sat and sun.

Thats it I guess, with time I'll post an update on durability and other stuff.

[rides4beer]

Braking is great, if I brake hard front wheel only I can fly over the bars, so thats plenty braking power. Modulation is better than alloy.

They look great, and pretty light too. Glad to hear there's no issues with braking, I got the grooved graphene surface on mine as well. How's the noise when braking?

[ericoschmitt]

They look great, and pretty light too. Glad to hear there's no issues with braking, I got the grooved graphene surface on mine as well. How's the noise when braking?

Makes Bvvvvwwwwwuuuuuuooo and stops
Not loud... doesn't bother me. Freehub is louder.

[edit] Forgot to add that it doesn't have the same "bite" as a brand new and well machined alloy rim, such as the DT Swiss R460 and Stans Alpha 340 I also own. On those as the pads touch the rims you already get strong braking.

On the LB there's not such a bite but as you apply some pressure the power comes and is more than enough for me. I can't really tell about the top limit of braking force on any, as on both kinds of rims I'd just fly over the bars...

On the other hand, I was riding older Zipp C60 on the same bike, and definitely the braking was waaay worse! it was very hard if not impossible to lock the front wheel and risk flying over the bars. It's alloy, even when machining was new it didn't work very well, all that with the same Koolstop salmon pads as the other 2 rims mentioned.

[maxwkh]

Braking is great, if I brake hard front wheel only I can fly over the bars, so thats plenty braking power. Modulation is better than alloy.

Cool! Good to know that the Grooved Graphene Surface actually works. Do you think the LB brake pad is worth getting?

Forgot to write about fitting tires. The 23mm are very hard to fit, and on alloy wheels I had to use two levers and brute force. On these it was hard but I did it with my hands only.
The rear tire, 25mm, was easier to fit, but harder to seal, I had to manually pop 80% of the beads in place and use a compressor pump and pop the last 20% of the bead.

BTW, do you mind getting the inflated tyre measurement (width and height) for both of the 23c and 25c tyre? Do you still have plenty of clearance left on your frame?

Thanks!

[ericoschmitt]

Do you think the LB brake pad is worth getting?

BTW, do you mind getting the inflated tyre measurement (width and height) for both of the 23c and 25c tyre? Do you still have plenty of clearance left on your frame?

Thanks!

Those pads are all I have and they work. They are also cheaper than others, I regret not having ordered a spare set.

I measured and wrote on one of the pictures, but front measures 27 rear 29 (which is above 105% so I kept 23 front)

Being a custom frame, I designed it with big tires in mind (I made the cad drawing myself). I can probably run conti 28 front and 32 back with room on these wheels, if I ever decide hitting the gravel. But I got a gravel bike then.

[ericoschmitt]

Got some climbing and rain today.

Braking in wet is pretty much the same, but with a split second delay in power, which I think is the pads washing away the water in the first wheel revolution. And then it works as dry.

I went down steep and curvy hill, lots of braking, not too hot, I could touch and hold the front rim brake track without burning my fingers.

Today I rode with 60/63 psi, its a soft ride but I'm not sure if its any softer than my 32 spokes alloy set (dt r460, wheelsmith spokes, record hubs), but on those wheels I have hutchingson f5 galatik tires. Hard to compare different tires...

They feel pretty stiff, I did a set of uphill sprints.

One thing is for sure: Vittoria CS dont inspire confidence while cornering, and loose traction when sprinting steep climbs. So I think those are really good for flat smooth races and TT. But they roll really fast.

I will do a 2.5km 11% climb tomorrow, technical descending, braking test. Takes some 4~5mins to go down safely.

And on mar10th theres an uphill race with a section of 12k at 11% too. Takes way longer to go down. I've burned my fingers touching alloy rims there once, let's see what happens! But I'll certainly pulse the brakes there.

[Mep]

Are the logos removable? Or are they decals under a clear coat?

[ericoschmitt]

Are the logos removable? Or are they decals under a clear coat?

Not removable, but you can order without any logo. Mine is ghost/grey.

[rides4beer]

Are the logos removable? Or are they decals under a clear coat?

As mentioned, they're under the clear coat, but you can get whatever colors you want, or none at all, or you can have them send you the decals separately and you can put them on over the clear coat in case you want to remove them later. You can also mix and match, mine are coming with white logos and a stealth valve decal.

[ericoschmitt]

I found out yesterday that they do custom painting and decals... If I knew it back when ordering I'd have asked them to match the purple of my bike and write "spino" as ghost-purple just like my bike. And also add their own valve sticker, probably in black would look good.

[Mep]

I found out yesterday that they do custom painting and decals... If I knew it back when ordering I'd have asked them to match the purple of my bike and write "spino" as ghost-purple just like my bike. And also add their own valve sticker, probably in black would look good.

That's good to know, I haven't seen that advertised anywhere and a pretty cool option to offer. How did you find them during your last hilly ride? One thing I've seen when manufacturing tolerances are not precise: the brakes can pulse even when you're trying to apply constant pressure, which isn't particularly confidence inspiring.

[ericoschmitt]

How did you find them during your last hilly ride? One thing I've seen when manufacturing tolerances are not precise: the brakes can pulse even when you're trying to apply constant pressure, which isn't particularly confidence inspiring.

They brake very well, absolutely nothing to complain. No pulsing. Their manufacturing tolerances seem to be all very tight, as you can see on one of the pictures I could balance one wheel on top of the other on their 9mm axis, perfectly round.. same goes for braking track. And spoke tension varies less than 5%, maybe the tightest to loosest spoke varies a bit more, but usually within a semitone when plucking.

They don't seem to heat much at all, but I haven't done that 20km uphill race yet (to go down after), that would be the ultimate test, as I've melted the rim tape there last time with an alloy set.

So far I'm so satisfied with them I see no reason why I would spend more for big-brand wheels. Or anyone else really. If your frame fits 30mm rims just get those, I'm in love. So in love I'm considering selling the alloy wheels and get a second pair later. I mean, if they work well in wet and brake tracks show to be durable too, and crosswind is no problem... Why not ride them all the time? We all should have backup wheels, in case we crash or something like that, so why not have more of the same, instead of alloy?

It's still early to say anything about durability as I put only some 500km on them, I think I should wait until 5k or 10k to evaluate that. That can take some time as I ride a lot on my gravel bike, only the past few days I was more on the road bike.