The beginners guide to chinese carbon wheels

smidsy

amaferanga wrote:

smidsy wrote:

I have just fitted Vittoria Open Corsa Evo CX and the new ones are indeed 320tpi.

£46 for the pair from Ribble.

Good price that - they're over £30 each now.

Result

smidsy

ShutUpLegs wrote:

Should be good for 2000 miles.

3years cycling for under 50 pounds _ result

ShutUpLegs

Mine lasted 4 months. Just notice Probikekit have them for £26.95, but there is a £5 off £50 voucher doing the rounds so £47.90 for 2.

amaferanga

ShutUpLegs wrote:

Mine lasted 4 months. Just notice Probikekit have them for £26.95, but there is a £5 off £50 voucher doing the rounds so £47.90 for 2.

Clinchers?

ShutUpLegs

Yeah, haven't see tubs that cheap apart from bike-discount.de

petemadoc

Ribble are doing the tubs for £31.19

and planet x have veloflex master clinchers for £29.99 . Best price I've seen on these.

oli2001

Just to give feedback on my experence.
My first pair i bought 50mm clinchers from carbonzone. built with novatec hubs, weighed 1550gms. Paid about £350 including about £20 customs. very happy with them(braking not great and non-existent in the wet), did about 1500kms and sold them as part of a bike sale. Bought a 2nd pair of 50mm clinchers from Gofar sports (xiamen) built with Edhubs? sapim cx rays and weigh 1350 gms! yes really!!
they have a basalt braking surface and i use swissstop pads and this makes them every bit as good as alloy rims for braking, even in the wet. Had these for about 800 kms so far and generally very chuffed with them. will be interested how long hubs last? paid £450 including £22 customs.Only took 11 days from order to my door too.
Overall, really impressed with wheels and service received.

apjs87

Does anybody have a review of 38mm clinchers please?

Also pics if poss. close to clicking the buy button

dirtymonkey1985

I had a pair of 38mm clinchers. Beautiful wheels and am now looking at getting another set as I sold them due to funds being a bit tight at the time.

duckson

Anyone bought from carbonwheels2011 on ebay before?

Specifically looking at these 38mm clinchers:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281068615161? ... 1438.l2649

Or recommend another seller for a similar price/weight/spec.

Danny87

I have no experience of buying from that seller but I'd probably go for these other wheels he or she has for sale
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-38mm-carb ... 3f221aae6c

They are a little bit heavier but safer due to Alu brake track.

Maybe check out some of the group buy deals they have on the velobuild website.

oli2001

i've used carbonzone and farsports. great service from both. farsports have better/lighter wheels

alan61

OK, I've finally ordered some 50mm carbon wheels from Carbonzone and am now in the process of sourcing some tyres and tubes (went with clinchers for convenience but shall be using them for flat/undulating races). Seems like the Vittoria open corsa evo cx or theContinental grand prix 4000 as regards the tyres. Can anyone with experience of these wheels point me towards a good innertube and what would the length of the valve need to be, 60,62 or 80mm? Cheers guys.

ugo.santalucia

At least 80 mm...

alan61

Thanks Ugo, just a thought because I can get cheaper 60mm tubes couldn't I use these and use a valve extender just to pump up the tubes and then remove?

mroli

when you have removed the valve extender, how do you screw down the valve to close it?

amaferanga

Some valve extenders such as Topeak ones allow you to close the valve using the extender.

80mm valves are more than long enough - no need for anything longer. You might even get away with 60mm valves depending on what pump you use.

alan61

mroli wrote:

when you have removed the valve extender, how do you screw down the valve to close it?

I was thinking if I use a tube with a 60mm valve (which protrudes from the rim but not enough to attach a pump effectively to) and attach a valve extender to the valve I could then pump up the tube and then remove the extender and close the valve by hand.

Does this make sense?

willy b

Alan - That's what I did on my 50mm. Until I ran out of 60mm tubes that is. Now I just leave the valve open.

alan61

willy b wrote:

Alan - That's what I did on my 50mm. Until I ran out of 60mm tubes that is. Now I just leave the valve open.

Do you use a short valve tube with a valve extender?

willy b

alan61 wrote:

willy b wrote:

Alan - That's what I did on my 50mm. Until I ran out of 60mm tubes that is. Now I just leave the valve open.

Do you use a short valve tube with a valve extender?

Yeah. Works fine.

mroli

alan61 wrote:

I was thinking if I use a tube with a 60mm valve (which protrudes from the rim but not enough to attach a pump effectively to) and attach a valve extender to the valve I could then pump up the tube and then remove the extender and close the valve by hand. Does this make sense?

Yep - that does.

amaferenga wrote:

Some valve extenders such as Topeak ones allow you to close the valve using the extender

As does that

alan61

Gordon Bennet..............All I want to know, though I'm half suspecting I can, is whether I can use 60mm valve length innertubes on Carbonzone 50mm clinchers and if the valve length protrusion from the rim is not sufficient to fit a track/hand pump to then can I use a valve extender of any length just to inflate the tyres and then remove the extender. I'm thinking of the type of extender that fits over the valve rather than the one that involves removing the core, etc.

Phew, or should I just buy 80mm valve length inner tubes for an easy life. :roll:

dirtymonkey1985

alan61 wrote:

Gordon Bennet..............All I want to know, though I'm half suspecting I can, is whether I can use 60mm valve length innertubes on Carbonzone 50mm clinchers and if the valve length protrusion from the rim is not sufficient to fit a track/hand pump to then can I use a valve extender of any length just to inflate the tyres and then remove the extender. I'm thinking of the type of extender that fits over the valve rather than the one that involves removing the core, etc.

Phew, or should I just buy 80mm valve length inner tubes for an easy life. :roll:

should work fine

alan61

Thanks

smidsy

But may not. Depends on your pump head. Rim depth includes brake track though, so you have a little extra than 10mm.

ugo.santalucia

Tonight I finally got the chance to inspect a set of these Chinese carbon clinchers: Bitex hubs, 50 mm deep rims in Matt weave with no ceramic particles on the brake track... and black Pillar bladed spokes with silver alloy nipples.
The build was very mediocre... The rear was true but with very low and inconsistent tensions. I have measured 70 KgF on the drive side as an average, which is very low by any standard, the non drive side was too low to be measured. I suppose the rims don't take much more without cracking. The front was not true, an offset of 0.7 mm was measured, which is a bit pathetic really. The nipples were not aligned particularly well, with spokes almost bending at the nipple. The front tension was about 40-50 KgF, again very low, with a few spokes too low to measure.
Overall, very poor build, assembled quickly and with poor quality control... Is this hat he fuss is all about? Save your money

ShutUpLegs

They must be selling shedloads though :shock:

amaferanga

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Tonight I finally got the chance to inspect a set of these Chinese carbon clinchers: Bitex hubs, 50 mm deep rims in Matt weave with no ceramic particles on the brake track... and black Pillar bladed spokes with silver alloy nipples.
The build was very mediocre... The rear was true but with very low and inconsistent tensions. I have measured 70 KgF on the drive side as an average, which is very low by any standard, the non drive side was too low to be measured. I suppose the rims don't take much more without cracking. The front was not true, an offset of 0.7 mm was measured, which is a bit pathetic really. The nipples were not aligned particularly well, with spokes almost bending at the nipple. The front tension was about 40-50 KgF, again very low, with a few spokes too low to measure.
Overall, very poor build, assembled quickly and with poor quality control... Is this hat he fuss is all about? Save your money

So you've inspected one set of Chinese wheels and concluded that all are equally bad? Sorry, but that's just ridiculous. Would you accept me concluding that your wheels are crap because I got some wheels from Dave Smith in the UK and the build was poor?

ugo.santalucia

amaferanga wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Tonight I finally got the chance to inspect a set of these Chinese carbon clinchers: Bitex hubs, 50 mm deep rims in Matt weave with no ceramic particles on the brake track... and black Pillar bladed spokes with silver alloy nipples.
The build was very mediocre... The rear was true but with very low and inconsistent tensions. I have measured 70 KgF on the drive side as an average, which is very low by any standard, the non drive side was too low to be measured. I suppose the rims don't take much more without cracking. The front was not true, an offset of 0.7 mm was measured, which is a bit pathetic really. The nipples were not aligned particularly well, with spokes almost bending at the nipple. The front tension was about 40-50 KgF, again very low, with a few spokes too low to measure.
Overall, very poor build, assembled quickly and with poor quality control... Is this hat he fuss is all about? Save your money

So you've inspected one set of Chinese wheels and concluded that all are equally bad? Sorry, but that's just ridiculous. Would you accept me concluding that your wheels are crap because I got some wheels from Dave Smith in the UK and the build was poor?

That's right, investigating a tiny batch and making generalisations, this is what a forum is all about.
I am allowed to have opinions like everybody else... it's up to people to make what they want of them. The only difference with any other opinion you will read on this thread is that you can see some numbers to back up the opinions.
I had inspected a similar set in the past and found similar faults, but they were used, so one can't draw conclusions on something that has been used. These were out of the box.

Beside the build quality, which can be inconsistent across the many suppliers and maybe some are a lot better, there are few rims manufacturers and these particular rims, with matt weave and no extra brake surface are quite common on Ebay and I have seen loads on this forum... I assume they all come from the same place. The engineering is quite primitive and I have seen carbon rims from 10 years ago better built. Certainly the Gigantex rims that I have occasionally used are a lot better than these, which appear to come from the early days of carbon fibre manufacturing.