Where can you buy 'aftermarket' road rims? (non-Mavic)

otherself

Where can you buy - online - road rims other than Mavic's offerings? DT Swiss are too costly.

I like the look of Araya, Rigida, Ambrosio and Sun-Ringle's on their respective websites but can't find stockists. Velocity only seem available in America and Australia. Any more names I've missed? Do they have a crap reputation? Mavic superior or something?

Spa-Cycles do a few, though all seem touring, non-racing types in terms of weight (500g+).

TCR ISP

Paul Hewitt sells Ambrosio rims. Give him a call.

DavidBelcher

otherself wrote:

Where can you buy - online - road rims other than Mavic's offerings? DT Swiss are too costly.

I like the look of Araya, Rigida, Ambrosio and Sun-Ringle's on their respective websites but can't find stockists. Velocity only seem available in America and Australia. Any more names I've missed? Do they have a crap reputation? Mavic superior or something?

Spa-Cycles do a few, though all seem touring, non-racing types in terms of weight (500g+).

Having explored this avenue myself recently, I'll chip in with a few suggestions.

Someone's already mentioned Ambrosio from Paul Hewitt; as for Spa Cycles, the Chrina is an OK rim for racing if a bit on the heavy side. Velomax and Sonic offer rims from Mach 1 which are lighter and none too expensive; I'm actually getting some hubs built on to Mach 1s by Sonic in a couple of weeks so will report on these once they've bedded in. There's also the DRC range from Surosa and velokit.co.uk which like the Rigida Chrina are a bit heavier than Mach 1s.

David

acorn_user

I like the Chrina rim a lot. We have two bikes with handbuilt wheels from Spa Cycles using Chrinas. They have held up very well. I finally bent one in a crash a couple of months ago. The main reason these alternative rims are hard to come by is distribution. Mavic, iirc, is distributed in the UK by Madison, one of the biggest distributors. Bob Elliot distributes DRC in the UK. I don't know who does Ambrosio. Rigida is distributed by Wildoo. You could ask your lbs if they deal with any of those guys.

aracer

There's also the Halo Aerorage and Mercury, which are rebranded versions of rims which are very popular when sold under different names (typically Niobium or kinlin) in the US - http://www.halorims.com/HaloNew/rims.html available from various shops if you google.