New rims/wheels Quite pleased.

cycleclinic

Well I decided to bite the bullet and order some samples of 25mm wide 50mm deep carbon rims from a chinese supplier (A factory).

They arrived after a week weeks as they had to made first. When I got them I weighed the. Either they picked two of the same weight or there QC is excellent. With more rims I will find out. The weight of the rims if 498 and 499g.

I built them up with Sapim vanity spokes and some miche Primato hubs 20F/24R and the weight of the wheels is 1650g not too bad then. The wheels tensioned up very evenly and the wheels are some of the truest I have ever built with no effort. Roundness is within 0.2mm and lateral trueness is 0.1mm with very even tension. I canot get the roundness relaibly even from the excellent Archetype as that typically sit 0.2-0.3mm on the final build with even tension (well as even as you can get). So it appear the QC of this factory is pretty good. Now to ride them and see how they fair.
Not all Chinese carbon products are rubbish as some try to claim. These I think are quite good.

Also my 23mm GP4000s tyres come up at 26mm on these. I can't wait for them to wear out now to see how wide Pave 27mm tyres are on these.

Som pics





I am quite happy. I will use them tonight and see how they fiar in the braking department but my quick test run was promising. The braking was similar to the alloy rims that were in there previously.

When the Royce hubs I have ordered turn up I will have a set of there 38mm deep tubular rims made for 2:1 lacing on the rear. They will drill the rims as I want. As will have a large NDS bracing angle (over 9 degrees) having the NDS rear spoke holes drilled for that will help prevent bends at the nipple I hope.

MountainMonster

Nice looking wheels, how much did they set you back in total?

cycleclinic

I never add up th cost of a build. I will at some point but not now also the shop paid for them - product testing of couse and the rim cost is not real as I were to import them them the rim costs would drop with a decent quanity ordered. I also pay trade for the spokes and hubs which cuts costs quite alot.

cycleclinic

Comfy ride tonight, they performed well, I think I noticed the aero benefit but it is hard to say for certain but the ride quality that makes them worth it by themselves.

Bobbinogs

I think there is a law against downtube shifters and carbon deep sections

Nice looking stealth machine aside from that though.

cycleclinic

It is a cobbled together training bike I ran out of money for STI's. Every time I think about getting some I buy another bike instead, it is kind of a reflex action that has happened about 4 times this year already. The latest addtion is the Trek's MTB brother the 8900 with the carbon maintubes. Now I have to do that justice so no STI's for a while.

Also I find D/T shifters fine. It means I can use whatever cassette I have arround, there has been 8 speed , 9 speed and now 10 speed on there this year. I will put 11 speed on next (I friction shift).

At some point I would like to fit Campag chorus 11 speed but I might buy another bike instead that would be 11! Help.

maddog 2

now do they do 38mm 28h.......?

cycleclinic

They can do and I want to order some check your pm's. If I order just two the cost will be higher than doing a stock order of 20 rims which I want to do but that will have to wait until the new year.

ugo.santalucia

Forget about the carbon rims... thell me about that Cinelli Grammo instead...

cycleclinic

130mm length ebay barginas the seller said the bolt was a bit rounded, it wasn't. Keen eye there. I have a 110mm one as well. I have even found a distibutor that has new ones expensive though. I'll look out for the ebay bargin.

ugo.santalucia

I always wanted one, although it won't look good on my Sannino... I am torn, as it's nowhere near as elegant as a 3TTT, but somehow I was always drawn to it... probably for its cult status.
Pantani had one... can't recall if he had one even in the Galibier stage in '98... should look on youtube

smidsy

Ugo - Some Titanium ones here

http://www.hilarystone.com/stems3.html

Worth a punt maybe?

cycleclinic

biding my time on ebay I pick mine for half what hilary is charging but I can see why he charges what he charges. I found bargins that if they had better listings would have sold for more.

I also have a 3TTT alien quill stem 135mm on my Pinerello (all the italian frames I have have short top tubes grrr), it is pretty. What I like about the grammo is it is a sub 200g quill. I want the MTB version to go with some Ti bars and a Ti seatpost for the Scott Pro Racing I have. Titanium it looks so good. Have we got side tracked?

Back to the Grammo for a quill they are quite stiff but then again it is not slender. This is why I use one.

ugo.santalucia

I have a 3TTT pantographed Sannino, like my frame, and that closes the debate, I think

cycleclinic

I think it does. If I had a quill pantagrpahed by Sannino it would be goin on my Sannino too. I don't so a modern stem is making an appearence.