planet x r50 tubular

jmeadows
Posts: 335
Has anyone had any bad , average experiences with this wheelset? Everything I've read seems pretty positive
Cheers
Cheers
never hurts your eyes to look on the bright side of life...
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They are a steal at that price.
Rims are Gigantex, hubs are Novatec and Spokes are Sapim Cx ray. Some problems you might experience are related to the hubs... the freehub is somehow softer than normal Novatec hubs and if you use a low end cassette made of single sprockets, these can chew in the splines over time. Replacment freehubs are not ourageously priced, or the problem can be solved by going to Ultegra, which has the cassette made out of blocks of 2-3 sprockets. The front hubs has very tiny bearings, which will wear overtime... they can be replaced, although these ultralight hubs are a bit fiddly or you can get a new hub for 20 quid or so... the rebuild is not horribly expensive.
Rims can delaminate if you use the wrong pad or dirty pads, but that is true for all carbon rims.
Other than that, I don't see why they should be inferior to a set of Zipp... of course someone will produce a chart showing how Zipp are 20% more aerodynamically efficient than other wheels, but as a scientist I rate these studies as a pile of bolxxxksleft the forum March 20230 -
For the price they're a steal. Very close to the price you could expect to source the components for yourself and both Novatec and Gigantex have a good reputation at the price point.
Freehub softness should be something that can be dealt with as well. Novatec sell a freehub body with 'anti bite guard' http://www.bdopcycling.com/Wheels-Parts.asp#FREEHUBSWITHABG which is worth a look if you find that the original freehub gets chewed up more than you would like. It's not something I'd worry about much though.0 -
Thanks, my wheelbuilders trying to put me off them, 'wouldn't touch cheap Chinese carbon, guys told me his bulged on brake track making braking difficult & dangerous'. Think he's forgetting most carbon is far eastern, and as I said I haven't seen any poor reviews, considering they've been around a few years. I had heard they were gigantex rims ,was unsure of hubs though so that's nice to know. I understand to a degree u get what you pay far but you pay a lot for marketing hype & sponsorship/advertising these days. Thanks againnever hurts your eyes to look on the bright side of life...0
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jmeadows wrote:Thanks, my wheelbuilders trying to put me off them, 'wouldn't touch cheap Chinese carbon, guys told me his bulged on brake track making braking difficult & dangerous'. Think he's forgetting most carbon is far eastern, and as I said I haven't seen any poor reviews, considering they've been around a few years. I had heard they were gigantex rims ,was unsure of hubs though so that's nice to know. I understand to a degree u get what you pay far but you pay a lot for marketing hype & sponsorship/advertising these days. Thanks again
Tell your wheel builders you want German carbon rims instead and see what he comes up with...
All rims come for mthe far east, with a few notable exceptions... The latter are typically 3 times more expensive.
Easton carbon rims are made in one of the worlds capitals of drugs, alcohol, gambling and prostitution, so not exactly Stuttgart eitherleft the forum March 20230