Carbon wheels

canoas

Been looking at a few brands Corima, Marchisio who are makers of great carbon wheels and a few others like Fulcrum & Campag.

I've never owned carbon wheels before, can someone tell how the rims perform in the wet, with winter coming up, I see a lot of wheel companies are now making carbon wheels with Alu rims now like Marchisio T800, Fulcrum Red Wind, Campagnolo Bullet. It seems a hassle changing brake pads and having 2 sets of wheels. We all know how bad it is changing brake pads.

Strada Wheels

Regarding braking, carbon rimmed wheels generally don't perform so well in the wet as alloy rims. Changing pads takes a few minutes for sure but you most manufacturers will not honour their warranty if you fail to use the pads they supply with their carbon rimmed wheels as the pads are formulated specifically.

Are these for race day only use?

StageWinner

Strada Wheels wrote:

Regarding braking, carbon rimmed wheels generally don't perform so well in the wet as alloy rims. Changing pads takes a few minutes for sure but you most manufacturers will not honour their warranty if you fail to use the pads they supply with their carbon rimmed wheels as the pads are formulated specifically.

I call B.S.

amaferanga

Takes less than 2 minutes for me to change all 4 pads on my Planet X brakes.

prawny

StageWinner wrote:

Strada Wheels wrote:

Regarding braking, carbon rimmed wheels generally don't perform so well in the wet as alloy rims. Changing pads takes a few minutes for sure but you most manufacturers will not honour their warranty if you fail to use the pads they supply with their carbon rimmed wheels as the pads are formulated specifically.

I call B.S.

It's true I've seen it too.

Although there's no rule about not using yellow swiss stops on alu rims. So no real need to change, unless you're using cork pads or similar.

Pokerface

prawny wrote:

StageWinner wrote:

Strada Wheels wrote:

Regarding braking, carbon rimmed wheels generally don't perform so well in the wet as alloy rims. Changing pads takes a few minutes for sure but you most manufacturers will not honour their warranty if you fail to use the pads they supply with their carbon rimmed wheels as the pads are formulated specifically.

I call B.S.

It's true I've seen it too.

Although there's no rule about not using yellow swiss stops on alu rims. So no real need to change, unless you're using cork pads or similar.

If you don't use the Zipp pads that come with Zipp wheels (but use SwissStop instead) I'm certain this will not void the warranty. Most carbon wheels don't actually come with pads anyway - but the suggest you use carbon-specific pads (as you should).

prawny

That's true, the Fuerte Bici website says you have to use their pads, but then don't sell replacements :?

I didn't read the original post properly, it's a good job I don't have a job that requires you to look at thinks in detail and make a judgement on them, like an insurance underwriter for instance, d'oh! :?

cougie

Why carbon wheels just as we're coming into winter ? So you can outbling the hacks on the rainy club rides ?

Wirral_paul

If you use pads on aluminium rims then there's the possibility of picking up tiny fragments of aluminum. Use those same pads on full carbon rims and it can damage the braking surface. Not good really.

My carbon wheels came with specific pads included anyway. As said, not so great for braking but its the trade off you pay for lower weight vs ali / ali&carbon rims

canoas

Stradawheels

a mixture of racing but also local riding in Surrey....I'm not in a position to buy 2 sets of wheels so I might buy decent Alu wheels for winter makes sense, then maybe get carbon for next summer,

Q - why do pros use carbon all the time even in the wet, or do they use Alu in the wet? out of interest.

kingrollo

Sounds like you don't want carbon wheels - but alloy rims with a carbon fairing - then you don't need to change brake blocks. I reckon these will be down to around £500 next year. Merlin were doing shimano c50 carbon clinchers for £549 recently

Pokerface

canoas wrote:

Q - why do pros use carbon all the time even in the wet, or do they use Alu in the wet? out of interest.

Some people say they DON'T.

But the ones that do - stay with carbon because they are lighter, etc. Plus you don't necessarily need to be able to stop on a dime when travelling in a pack of over 100.

canoas

I received this message from Corima:

Dear Sir,

All our wheels are delivered with CORIMA brake pads and the wheels must be used with CORIMA brake pads. It's a brake pad that has been especially studied for the braking on carbon surface. When it's raining, it's still necessary to anticipate at best the braking like with any other brake pad and rim.

So why can't use carbon wheels in the winter? or wet? I think I might buy Corima for winter why not.I really would like to get an opinion from someone who uses carbon all year.

canoas

well I've made my mind up choosing these

http://www.campagnolo.com/jsp/en/wheels ... atid_9.jsp

1590g with ceramic bearings and light! with Alu rims. That's quiet light.

nochekmate

Good luck trying to stop on them when it gets wet.

Rode a set a few weeks back on club ride and got caught out in some heavy rain - bloody nightmare trying to brake going down hills, round bends etc.

You must be mad! It was just dangerous tbh, little or no control over speed.

Strada Wheels

Zipp dedicate a whole page to brake pad related questions and there's some good info in there about why manufacturers go to great lengths to source and test the right material to use.

http://www.zipp.com/support/askjosh/carbonwheels.php

celbianchi

I don't understand all these claims that you can't brake in wet. i use Swiss stop yellow pads on carbon rims (I have a few different pairs) and the braking is as efficient in the wet on the carbon as it is on alloy rims.
In the wet any rim needs 'flushing'

Don't believe the guff talked about how carbon doesn't brake in the wet. Garbage.

on-yer-bike

celbianchi wrote:

I don't understand all these claims that you can't brake in wet. i use Swiss stop yellow pads on carbon rims (I have a few different pairs) and the braking is as efficient in the wet on the carbon as it is on alloy rims.
In the wet any rim needs 'flushing'

Don't believe the guff talked about how carbon doesn't brake in the wet. Garbage.

No its not garbage. My Boras are lethal in the wet with campag brake pads. They arent as good as alu in the dry either. I have tried Swiss stop yellow and they were far too grabby in the dry.

nochekmate

celbianchi wrote:

I don't understand all these claims that you can't brake in wet. i use Swiss stop yellow pads on carbon rims (I have a few different pairs) and the braking is as efficient in the wet on the carbon as it is on alloy rims.
In the wet any rim needs 'flushing'

Don't believe the guff talked about how carbon doesn't brake in the wet. Garbage.

I must have been imagining it all on my ride then - Swisstop Yellow Pads on too. Must be all pilot error. Well there we go, braking with carbon rims is just as efficient as alloy rims clearly.

It's a matter of opinion obviously! I just know that my ride that day was not an enjoyable one due to the lack of control that I was experiencing on the descents. Not one I'd like to repeat and I wouldn't consider myself to be a novice.

Thanks 'on-yer-bike', your reply came in as I typed my reply above.

amaferanga

Braking on carbon rims when it's a bit wet isn't a problem. It's when its properly pissing it down with lots of standing water where with alloy rims braking is poor, but with carbon it is much worse.

As for this nonsense about only using the manufacturers own pads. Firstly, given how much some of those pads cost they would say that wouldn't they. Secondly, how the hell would they know if you'd used other pads anyway?

nochekmate

celbianchi 1 v Carbon crap braking when pissing down 3

theblender

....one day, road bikes will have disc brakes...