Climbing — These are the lightest and the most shallow wheels. They should weigh around 1,g or less. Moreover, the rim depth should be less than 30mm. The low weight and small profile provide a smooth ride and easier climbing but are not as durable or fast.
Mid-Section — This is becoming an increasingly popular wheel type due to the fact that it provides some of the benefits of both the climbing and deep wheels. They are less standard in terms of weight, but their rim depth will be between 30mm to 50mm.
They are smoother than deep rims and quicker than climbing rims. Deep Section — These wheels are generally the heaviest wheel sets and have rims that are 50mm and larger. The deeper rims provide a more aerodynamic ride which increases speed. However, the ride can often be bumpier, and cross-winds will cause more turbulence. Your preference in terms of tire type will likely hinge more on whether you are a professional rider or not.
Professionals will often opt for tubular tires, though clinchers and tubeless tires offer distinct advantages outside of pure performance. Clincher — This is the most common type of tire for the amateur level of riding. These tires are not quite as durable, nor do they sport quite as good of performance as tubular tires, but they are much cheaper and far easier to replace. These can serve as effective training tires for professionals. Tubular — If you are professional rider looking for peak performance, you will almost certainly require tubular tires.
The tube is not hooked to the rim but is instead glued to it. This reduces weight and allows you to inflate the tires more providing a superior rolling resistance and cornering grip. Tubeless — This tire type is more common for mountain biking where the rough, uneven riding surfaces can quickly wear out an inflated tire.
However, road bikes have started to adopt the technology for their own use. The tubeless road tires provide better rolling resistance than clinchers and are often less expensive than tubulars. For anyone who is invested in riding — whether professionally or otherwise — the hub is one of the most important parts of the bike. The design of the hub will ultimately control a number of factors regarding how the bike rides. However, when buying wheelsets, it is important to ensure that the wheels match the hub you intend to use.
Shimano — Shimano is arguably the most popular type of hub used for road biking today. They combine the best features of economic and performance return to provide arguably the best value available.
These hubs are noted for some of the most precise shifting which translates to immediate power. Shimano hubs are also easier to find replacement parts for, though they will wear out quicker than Campagnolos. Campagnolo — This brand of hub is a legacy product that invented a number of the modern biking standards, but they have fallen behind in terms of innovation in recent years.
SRAM — This hub brand made its name in mountain biking, but much like tubeless tires, is starting to migrate to the road biking market. These hubs are noted for being considerably lighter than their competitors.
Moreover, the SRAM shifting allows for shifting multiple gears at once—up to three. Spokes are likely less important if you are not a professional rider. Number — The number of spokes does not have a clear winner. Instead, this is a bit of a give and take category. The more spokes you have, the more stable the wheel and smoother the ride. As discussed in another one of our articles, it is advisable to be able to know the difference between genuine and counterfeit carbon bike parts, especially from manufacturing giants in China.
There is nothing wrong to choose a Chinese wheel brand if you only how to find the right one. Most of our clients who run local brands, they prefer to buy rims directly from us, then they could assemble the wheels locally, with flexible hubs, spokes, painting jobs, and test labs. Here are a few tips for you. Our advice: Keep in mind, rims are not frames. If you want to get good rims, always check these tips before placing the order. If you were to ask any cycling fanatics opinion on purchasing a used carbon wheelset, their answer would probably be the same — that you brave.
If, however, you do decide to purchase a used carbon wheelset ensure to check for cracks as well as the broken surface for any exposed fibers. As a carbon bike manufacturer, we highly suggest to check the wheels and ride before you buy the used carbon wheelset. With these tips, you may find some used carbon wheels in good condition, but generally, we suggest to buy new rims or wheels. After all, not everyone is as professional as a mechanic.
Carbon Wheels Guide? Chinese Carbon Bike Guide? Fat Bike […]. Hi, where can I find more details on the spoke and freewheel options you offer on your carbon wheels please? Please check our wheelset product page, where you will find the spokes and freehub options. You must be logged in to post a comment. Skip to navigation Skip to content.
Triathlon Frame. Integrated Road Bike Handlebar New! Table of Contents. Road Bike Carbon Wheelset. Carbon Wheelset c. Carbon Clincher Wheelset. Carbon Tubular Wheelset. Carbon Disc Brake Wheelset.
Carbon Fatbike Wheelset. Internal width External width Essentially a V-shaped rim profile. Quality : FLO provides standard 2-year materials and workmanship warranty.
There is no crash replacement policy. I bought these wheels looking to experience how they actually performed, separate from the buzz. Far louder than a Chris King or i9 that are known for their distinct and loud freehubs but nowhere near the refined sound from the multiple points of engagement those hubs offer.
I tried it. Could hardly hear a thing he or I was saying. My more practical concerns — 1 being able to communicate with fellow riders in a paceline and 2 wrecking the peace I so enjoy and deserve going downhill after a hard climb. Aside from the freehub, the Hunt 50 Carbon Aero Disc performance is a prime example of what separates most value-carbon wheelsets from higher-priced performance-carbon ones. Rather, this wheelset lacks the comfort, stiffness, climbing, and handling qualities of performance-carbon wheels.
They feel more like a 40mm deep wheelset with some sense that your momentum is being sustained but not to the level of a 45mm deep Zipp or 50mm deep Bontrager Aeolus Pro 5 TLR Disc, both value-carbon wheels reviewed earlier in this post. You also feel a little bit of push from crosswinds, though nothing to move you dramatically off your line.
Going uphill, however, they felt quite average to both of us and offered no help from their lateral stiffness or aerodynamics. The internal width I measured was considerably less than the The external widths were the same as what is listed. The rims have more of a V than U-shaped profile. Hunt uses bladed and butted Pillar spokes on these wheels, 20 in the front and 24 in the back. The hubs are Hunt branded Race Season Disc straight-pull with 7.
Novatec has made hubs for Hunt in the past but I was unable to determine whether they make the ones on this wheelset. With rim strips but no valves, the wheels weighed grams on my scale or about 90 grams more than the gram weight Hunt claims for this wheelset.
Quality : The wheels themselves appeared well made and had a very even matt black finish. They came with extra spokes and other spares in case you ever need to replace them.
The set I ordered came damaged with the freehub having come through the box. It happens and was likely caused by the shipper or a customs handler rather than Hunt. The replacement set was shipped from the next monthly allotment unscathed and well packaged. Hunt initially charged my account to ship the damaged wheels back but refunded me after several requests. Getting Hunt to respond to the return request, securing the shipping labels, scheduling the shipper, acknowledging the return, and then processing the refund each took at least 3 e-mail requests from my end for each of these steps.
The refund process took many more than 3. There were 6 or 7 Hunt advisors that responded over that time with, at times, incomplete, incorrect, or contrary information, occasionally with multiple responses from different advisors and email domains to the same email from me. Manufacturers are in business to fabricate and sell carbon products including rims, wheelsets, bike frames, and other cycling components.
They sell wheelsets under their own brand names and also make them to order for lesser-known brands and wheel builders. Manufacturers are based in China and are not to be confused with the Taiwanese-based carbon frame and component OEMs that make exclusively for major bike brands.
Manufacturers sell wheelsets to individual cyclists direct from their company websites or through Amazon or eBay stores. Most give you the feel of being high-volume custom wheel builders by giving you the choice of a couple dozen or more of their carbon rims combined with a range of brand name hub and spoke options.
While they ship hundreds and some over a thousand wheelsets a month, depending on what wheelset you want built, it takes them several weeks from order to receipt of your wheelset.
Carbon manufacturing and wheelset assembly appear to be their primary focus and competence. Reverse engineering is a skill many manufacturers of all sorts of cycling and other industry products often have and that some of these Manufacturers may also possess. Performance : While most roadies like a laterally stiff wheelset that transfers power efficiently to the road that is also vertically compliant to help cushion imperfectly paved paths, I found the Yoeleo SAT C50 50 DB PRO underperformed the better value-carbon wheelsets on both measures.
With this Yoeleo wheelset, I noticed it right away. After many rides at different pressures and considering the tradeoffs, I ended up riding them about 5 psi higher than I normally ride.
This seemed to get me the best performance balance between stiffness, comfort, and handling for these wheels. Unfortunately, the Yoeleos still underperformed on all three of these criteria. Strangely, however, the balanced underperformance seemed easier to get used to over time than wheelsets that were good performers on one of these criteria, say stiffness, and subpar performers in others, for example, comfort. My Unlike many lower-priced carbon wheels that use Toray T standard modulus fiber, Yoeleo uses the higher modulus, higher tensile strength Toray T intermediate modulus carbon fiber for these wheels.
With all else being equal rim wall thickness, spoke bracing angles, hub flange diameter, etc. The rims have a classic toroid profile even more pronounced than the Zipp whose predecessor was one of the originators of this shape.
These Yoeleo wheels measure The internal rim width between the bead hooks is a healthy They do offer a 3-year warranty but only cover the shipping costs for the first 3 months should there be a problem.
They offer no crash replacement policy. My test wheels arrived true and looked well built. While I rode them less than 1, miles, I encountered no quality issues with them during that time.
You buy them directly from Yoeleo. None of the wheelsets in this category are. Yet, while some of the wheels in this category offer performance strengths e. While not as stiff as say, the Bontrager Aeolus Pro 5 TLR Disc wheelset reviewed above or as aero as the Zipp also written up above, these WR46C02 wheels are both adequately stiff and do help hold your momentum somewhat.
Though not climbing wheels, they also go uphill reasonably well and certainly better than some of the heavyset hoops in this review. The handling was decent, the DT Swiss hubs I speced the wheels with are relatively quiet and roll smoothly, and the rims managed the crosswinds predictably despite being an older V-shaped profile. Set up with my benchmark 25C Zipp Tangente Speed RT25 tires, they measured a mm narrower than the outside rim width which is good for aero performance.
In a flat out sprint, while not floppy, they did not feel super fast in a straight line. Instead, they seemed rather average among similarly priced wheels. Design : This wheelset tested weighed in at grams without rim strips or valve stems. Light Bicycle claims the rims weigh grams though I was unable to verify that. The rim has a classic V-shape profile and uses 28 CX-Ray J-bend spokes in the rear wheel, 24 in the front, both connected to external alloy nipples and the DT Swiss hubs.
You can have the wheels built with a list of more or less expensive hubs if you prefer. Quality : The wheels looked well built and stayed true during our testing. Light Bicycle gives you only 30 days from purchase to replace defective rims during which they pay the shipping costs.
Nothing is stated about what happens after 15 months. If you have issues with the hubs or spokes, you need to go to the manufacturers of those parts to deal with those issues. Hub warranty terms are usually a year. There are no warranties on spokes. When I asked about that, they offered to write a one-year warranty on the invoice but claimed they have never had the need to provide this type of warranty.
Light Bicycle will take care of wheels damaged in shipment as long as you refuse the shipment or make them aware of a shipment damage issue for ones that are dropped off within 10 days. Non-stock orders can only be returned if there is an error made by Light Bicycle. If you live in North America, duties and taxes are already built into the price.
It will also take you longer to get them and cost you more should you need to return them under warranty. You can purchase them directly on the Light Bicycle website. Thank you for reading. When you do, we may earn an affiliate commission that will help me cover the expenses to create and publish more ad-free, subscription-free, and reader-supported reviews that are independent, comprehensive, and comparative. If you prefer to buy at other stores, you can still support the site by contributing here or by buying anything through these links to eBay and Amazon.
You can use the popup form or the one at the bottom of the sidebar to get notified when new posts come out. Follow us on facebook. First published on June 2, Date of the most recent major update shown at the top of the post. How do they compare to your other picks for carbon disc wheels?
I had a set built for my hardtail mtb a while back and they have been stunning for the cost. Just curious if you have an insight into the aero efficiency and characteristics of their road offerings.
How do they compare to some popular picks like the enve 3. Thank for the good work though. Any suggestions or opinions are much appreciated. This might give you additional guidance in picking the right wheelset for your goals, riding profile and budget. The design philosophy, engineering approach, production process, product technologies, components, specs, brand, and looks are only important if they deliver the performance we want at prices we are willing to pay.
And then I read the comments at the end of wheelset reviews including my own , the reviews that many established publications write, and the marketing materials companies publish about their wheels. Being on-trend. Checking the boxes. Wheel weight, rim width, tubeless ready, brake track treatment, rim profile, straight pull and bladed spokes, brand name hubs, ceramic bearings, blacked-out logos, how the wheelset will look on my bike or go with my brand of bike, what the salesperson in the store told me, what I read in a forum, etc.
To help sort through which wheelsets I want to review, I also consider product specs and try to learn what engineering and production expertise companies bring to the party. For this review, I considered what each company stated on their web site and from answers to my questions along with what I found from my own research to better understand their engineering and production activities.
Integrateds — As a group, these companies bring the most engineering and production experience and what appears to be the greatest expertise of any of the four groups of companies selling value carbon wheelsets. They typically have larger staffs that are doing or overseeing more of the engineering and production activities themselves than the other groups of companies. Integrateds also have more generations of experience researching, designing and testing carbon wheels than the Regionals and Branders , and probably more than the Manufacturers as well.
Many of their design principles and the actual wheelset designs or key aspects of them have been copied by other Integrateds companies as well as those in the other three groups. Reynolds has long had a mid-tier priced wheelset line. These and others in the AR line follow the Assault, Attack and Strike models that had a successful long run for the company. Yet the specs of the Reynolds AR 41s are an exception among the value carbon wheelsets now sold by the Integrateds.
Unfortunately, the AR 41 wheels are unexceptional performers despite their specs — more on this in Part II of this review. When you look at the specs of the value carbon wheels made by many of these Integrateds , it appears as if you are essentially getting the last generation designs and, in some cases, the actual last generation carbon wheel models. But, these wheels have the same rim specs and use the same rims molds as the last generation Aeolus 5 D3 models that Bontrager sold for many years.
The wheels have claimed weights of and for the rim and disc models respectively which are about grams heavier than more expensive wheels of the same dimensions. The Aeolus Pro 5s use the same rim for the disc and rim brake wheelsets instead of taking weight out of the disc brake version where it is not needed for structural integrity along the brake track of the rim brake model as most modern disc brake models do.
Bontrager continued this practice for the current Aeolus XXX models. These are Yet it is only 38mm deep where most all arounds are 40mm plus these days and rolls on DT Swiss hubs rather than the lighter and better regarded DT Swiss Despite sharing C40 name with the disc brake model, the rim brake version is actually a rebranded C35, still a 35mm deep, 15C carbon-alloy wheelset. Regionals — The Regionals reviewed in this post do their own wheelset design and testing and have their carbon rims made in proprietary molds for them.
Whereas the Branders are more marketing and sales-oriented companies, these Regionals are more engineering oriented. Profile Design engineers and sells a range of carbon cockpit components — bars, stems, seatposts, and saddles — in addition to their road wheel line.
They also assemble their wheels in-house and make their own alloy rims for their wheels and for sale to others. Likely not. Have they been in the carbon engineering and wheel making game as long? Yes, although likely on a smaller scale than many of the Integrateds. They introduced their TwentyFour series wheels a half dozen years ago to call attention to what at the time was a relatively wide Nowadays, that external width combined with the 17mm internal width looks a bit dated to design spec connoisseurs as does their tube-only clincher and narrow spoke-edge rim profile.
Both have claimed weights in the low gram range. They are tubeless ready and claim seemingly competitive gram and gram weights for the rim and disc brake models respectively but are a bit heavy considering they are only 32mm deep. The Regionals neighborhood is a tough one to live in if you want to put out value priced carbon wheels.
Rolf Prima went dark in the economic downturn, rebooting the following year with just 3 employees but is now back to health. Williams, another long-tenured player in the value-priced wheels and components market has stopped working its dealer network over the last year or so, shows few products in stock at its site store, and has put out the for sale sign. Prime introduced a second generation of carbon wheels in the summer of Tokyowheel started selling carbon wheelsets in and claim to be producing their 3rd generation now.
Some of these claims are a bit squishy but are central to the brand image these companies are trying to create. Take FLO and Hunt, two Branders that market aggressively through different combinations of reviews in targeted cycling publications, newsletters, photo journals, forum participation, and social media. FLO regularly tells its story around the activities of its twin brother founders who do the full range of company activities from wheelset design and sourcing to managing logistics to doing a wide range of marketing and running the web sales operations.
In addition to their face-of-the company branding approach, they publish detailed reports to create the impression that their field research and wheel design is leading edge and that this has led them to create advanced aerodynamic wheelsets ideally suited for the technologically sophisticated, demanding triathlete that appears to be their primary target market. The toroidal-shaped rim and disc FLO 45 carbon wheels they introduced in were part of their first carbon wheel line.
The claimed weight of the rim brake FLO 45 is a competitive grams. The disc brake version, which uses the same rim as the rim brake one, is a head-scratching grams apparently owing to a heavier hub and 4 more spokes. And in a much followed and to some, independent and real-world comparison of 40 different models of wheels for their aero performance done by Hambini Performance Engineering, the FLO 45 wheels were one of two sold by Branders in this review that finished far back in the pack.
And, of course, aero performance is but one of many performance considerations in choosing a a wheelset. Hunt has built its brand around the price of their wheels and their professed suitability to British roads and weather conditions. Although a storyline in some of their marketing, there is much less focus on the non-twin brother founders or any claim to superior or unique engineering expertise.
Indeed, Hunt speaks openly about the experience of one brother coming from a sourcing background and the other from a marketing one. In my email exchange with Hunt, they did write about the goals and influence on the designs of their wheelsets but also readily acknowledge that most of their wheels are made using mostly open mold rims some of their alloy wheels are made from propriety rims , along with hubs and spokes available to anyone.
These components are also assembled into wheelsets and tested in Taiwan. This selection and sourcing capability is what separates the design, quality and ultimately the performance of one wheelset or family of wheelsets sold by one Brander from another. I could ride and compare one of the Hunt wheelsets today but it might offer no indication of how other wheelsets in their line now perform or what might replace it next year.
This is a marked difference between wheels that come from companies who engineer and produce their own wheels, have specific performance goals and characteristics they want to achieve that differentiate their wheels from others.
They employ engineering and production teams that follow processes to work toward those goals across a line and from one generation to the next. For Branders like Hunt, being able to source open mold wheels engineered and produced under contract allows them to nimbly keep the specs of their product line up to date.
It does give me some pause trying to pick ones to review for you. Nonetheless, here are the specs on wheels I would choose from Hunt as the most modern looking, best-priced options.
The slightly differently named 50 Carbon Aero Disc sells for the same price but has more of an 0 profile, claims a weight of only grams and has a 21mm internal, 27mm external rim width. Clearly, the Hunt road disc wheelset is a little wider and lighter than their rim brake one, making it more applicable to dirt and gravel riding and eliminating carbon thickness that would be needed for strength and dispersing heat in the rim brake model.
Both wheelsets are tubeless and use 3-pawl, 48 ratchet hubs with EZO bearings. They also use straight pull, butted Pilar spokes with alloy nipples.
Prime Components, the house brand first for Chain Reaction Cycles and now both CRC and Wiggle, started selling their second generation of value carbon wheels in late When I reviewed their first gen carbon wheels that came out in , they made no claim to design, engineering or production and used open mold rims at the time. For what its worth, their 50mm deep first gen and narrower carbon wheelset outperformed similar depth current generation wheels from FLO and Hunt in the Hambini aero testing.
They share the same rim which sizes out at 50mm deep with 19mm internal and The hub internals have 4 pawls and 26 points of engagement. Tokyowheel introduced their 3 rd generation EPIC line of carbon rim and disc brake wheelsets in They feature front and rear wheels with different depths as in the EPIC 3. Tokyowheel gives you the option to combine their 18mm internal and 25mm external width 0-shaped front rims and U-shaped rear ones with several different hub and spoke options.
Their standard hubs and spokes on the EPIC 3. That same combination of hub and spoke models on the disc brake EPIC 3. Their 40mm deep Grimpeur with modern These look to be second generation Grimpeurs introduced in with non-proprietary, open mold rim designs and some tailoring to allow for tubeless tire use.
Parcours seems to be a lean operation with limited marketing bluster and no claims of unique design or engineering expertise. Sourcing carbon wheelsets that can compete with the best-performing ones at a fraction of the price looks to be the focus of their branding efforts. Manufacturers — These Chinese companies specialize in fabricating carbon cycling components from rims to frames, bars, stems, and seatposts.
They also assemble wheelsets using their carbon rims with hubs and spokes engineered and made by well-known brands. Two of them — Light Bicycle and Yoeleo — also make carbon wheelsets and other carbon components that are branded and sold by other companies. There are many Taiwanese or Chinese carbon manufacturers making rims and assembling wheelsets for large, medium, and small wheel sellers around the world.
Some are made for and sold exclusively by the companies that design the wheels including the rims and often the hubs. They use proprietary rim molds and are run on dedicated production lines where the wheel seller and manufacturer jointly develop and control the manufacturing requirements, process, and quality levels. Other rims and wheels are available for anyone to buy and sell, are made from designs developed by the manufacturers, layed up in non-proprietary or open molds, and assembled with catalog selected hubs and spokes where all the processes are the responsibility of the manufacturer.
The wheels can be built under a long term contract or on an order by order basis. The best or most in-demand carbon manufacturers make only proprietary designed carbon wheelsets, bike frames, and other carbon components. The least in-demand manufacturers copy rim and wheelset designs that are doing well in the marketplace and sell mostly open mold rims and wheelsets using those rims. And then there are manufacturers that do some of each.
The most in-demand carbon bike parts manufacturers tend to be based in Taiwan while the less experienced ones are based in China. Bike Biz, a publication that reports on the cycling industry did an analysis of Asian carbon bike frame suppliers. They called the best carbon molders the Creme, the next tier the Competent, and the bottom tier the Cowboys.
Those tier names probably extend well to wheelsets and other carbon components made in the same factories. I doubt any of them are Creme. Carbon manufacturing and wheelset assembly is their primary competence.
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