Superlight Nextie 'wave' rims

[RDY]

https://www.nextie.com/road-CRX-AW-series

430g for a 65 and 345g for a 45 is extremely light. Hooked and 22mm internal, 28mm external at the edge of the hook, 31mm max width.

Not sure how long ago they launched, but recently.

Anyone tried them? It's tempting to go for 45s as a climbing wheelset ... they'd be really light. I wish they'd gone something like 23/30/33 re: width though. Albeit I guess that would have been a little heavier.

They don't cite a weight limit, but there must be one.

Edit: maybe the 65 is the most interesting one. I could drop 90g over my also-Nextie 65 ARX rear. Though I'm sure the 'wave' profile is significantly less aero.

[eucalyptus]

99% sure there is a 90 kg or 100kg weight limit on those, probably 90kg.

How on earth can 21/30mm wide 45mm rims be 345 gram !!! Wow! Must be top 3 worlds lightest. They ride like noodles or what?

I have 21/28 and 45mm rims from Timetecbike at ish 400g and they are not the stiffest but fine, 100kg weight limit.

If they hold true and safe to ride, then go for it!

[toxin]

Rims contribute almost nothing to wheel stiffness, it's all spokes and hubs

[jayjay]

What is the point of this wave structure?

[RDY]

What is the point of this wave structure?

Marketing. Like every other purveyor of them. But the weight is the point of these, as far as I'm concerned.

[usr]

What is the point of this wave structure?

Zip claims better separation of flow where the tie is the leading edge. The point where air is "undecided" between staying attached and detaching is a big contributor to drag, you want to have a clean end of attachedness. This is why the backsides of cars are either super smooth or a clear edge.

With the rotating movement of a wheel, stationary on the ground, double speed at the top and something oddly in between everywhere else the waves will cause a sharper separation in the upper front quadrant and not much difference in the lower front quadrant because there it's so close to stationary, at some cost of effectively blunter angles in the upper rear quadrant. Wheel aerodynamics is complicated, because they part goes through so many directions relative to the air. Just remember how long it took to discover that U-profiles are better than V-profiles.

Are those actually faster or just hand-wavy "we have something the others don't have (except zipp)"? Impossible to predict. Zipp has not steamrolled the market in the years since they introduced their wavy wheel buy they also haven't ccompletely disappeared, so I suspect that it's a wash.

[Aeo]

EIE 40mm deep rim is at 350 grams in the UL version: https://www.eiecarbon.com/goods/details/ARG40TC30
Asymmetric, 1 mm wider internally, more traditional appearance, same price

EIE "weight limit" 120 kg
Nextie "load limit" 110 kg (per wheel)

[RDY]

EIE 40mm deep rim is at 350 grams in the UL version: https://www.eiecarbon.com/goods/details/ARG40TC30
Asymmetric, 1 mm wider internally, more traditional appearance, same price

EIE "weight limit" 120 kg
Nextie "load limit" 110 kg (per wheel)

I don't think asymmetric is desirable on road wheels, and when I asked EIE about other rims in the past they confirmed that the weight limit was lower for UL versions.

[ms6073]

I don't think asymmetric is desirable on road wheels, and when I asked EIE about other rims in the past they confirmed that the weight limit was lower for UL versions.

While I have not put the wheels in the wind tunnel and certainly not an apples-to-apples comparison to the EIE rims, but desite the wheels being a bit long in the tooth, I have not had any issues with my wheelset built on Nox Composite Falkor 36D asymmetric rims.

[RDY]

I'm sure I remember reading that asymmetric was a disaster from an aero perspective. Hence usually only being used on MTB. But maybe the article was wrong. Oddly Nextie also did these wave ones in asymetric first in a heavier layup.

[alanyu]

I'm sure I remember reading that asymmetric was a disaster from an aero perspective. Hence usually only being used on MTB. But maybe the article was wrong

Only if you descend crazy, it will create some small but noticeable force pushing you aside.

[BigBoyND]

What is the point of this wave structure?

Zip claims better separation of flow where the tie is the leading edge.

And what they hopefully don't claim is that it's faster. The few wind tunnel tests I've seen for both depths, all show the standard NSW was faster than the wavy one.

[jlok]

EIE 40mm deep rim is at 350 grams in the UL version: https://www.eiecarbon.com/goods/details/ARG40TC30
Asymmetric, 1 mm wider internally, more traditional appearance, same price

EIE "weight limit" 120 kg
Nextie "load limit" 110 kg (per wheel)

I don't think asymmetric is desirable on road wheels, and when I asked EIE about other rims in the past they confirmed that the weight limit was lower for UL versions.

I guess asym design probably helps shallow rims like 25-30mm more than deeper rims, to increase the spoke bracing angle on the DS. Aero is of lower priority for shalow rims.

[usr]

What is the point of this wave structure?

Zip claims better separation of flow where the tie is the leading edge.

And what they hopefully don't claim is that it's faster. The few wind tunnel tests I've seen for both depths, all show the standard NSW was faster than the wavy one.

Non-wavy NSW? I see nothing but wavy on their site when I click the NSW filter. But the way I read their portfolio is they have moved to a parallel universe where Zipp buyers choose a price point within the portfolio not considering any other brand, and other potential buyers don't really exist. Better to keep selling the snake-oil as long as there are still buyers than admitting that the snake-oil isn't actually that good, by topping the line with an objectively faster but plain wheel. Can't really blame them, they (unknowingly?) put themselves in a tight spot before actual wind tunnel tests became common and now they can't really change their past.

[BigBoyND]

Oh you're right. I didn't notice they discontinued the NSW 404 and 808. But the statement holds true for Firecrest. The NSW is more expensive and slower.