Wheelsmith Carbon 38mm clinchers

designman

Just been looking on the Wheelsmith website at his RACE38 C23 http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk/race38-c23
£740 for a full carbon wheelset is rather a good price and I'm looking for something like this for the summer season.
I just have a few questions / queries:-
Does anyone have any experience of these wheels?
What are the build like from Wheelsmith?
What are the Hubs he uses on the £740 wheels?
What are the carbon rims like what he uses?
Cheers.

slowandsteady

I've got the race50's but I've got less than 100 miles on them so far so can't really give an opinion yet.

Nothing too much wrong with the build and I believe the hubs are rebranded novatec, might be wrong though.

ugo.santalucia

Slowandsteady wrote:

Nothing too much wrong with the build and I believe the hubs are rebranded novatec, might be wrong though.

Missing the tubulars?

cycleclinic

I thought he used a bitex designed hub which he gets made up by another company in the far east. I keep on thinking about carbon clinchers for stock and then I keep think tubular is better I have convinced my wife tubular carbon is better which is good news for here disc brake build.

ugo.santalucia

thecycleclinic wrote:

I keep on thinking about carbon clinchers for stock

As a honest and genuine builder as you are, it's a difficult market to get into... lots of players keen to slash prices... realistically it is difficult to compete with the likes of Planet X or Superstar... you can draw in customers that want something bespoke and well built, but generally they also want the best rims around, which are difficult to get hold of... but good luck with that...
if you go that route, I suggest you contact Bitex directly, it's very easy to do business with them and they sell their hubs direct at a price you can make some serious mark up on...

cycleclinic

And the superstar planet X problem is why I have not done it yet part from the small fact I keep on spending money on other stock.

slowandsteady

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Slowandsteady wrote:

Nothing too much wrong with the build and I believe the hubs are rebranded novatec, might be wrong though.

Missing the tubulars?

Not yet. Value for money and build wise I don't think anything could compete with your wheel but it proved just so much easier to ride the clincher.

I will say the clincher most definitely feels harsher but that could well be down to the tyre. Now on a Schwalbe 1 23mm.

8)

ugo.santalucia

Slowandsteady wrote:

Now on a Schwalbe 1 23mm.
8)

German tyres have no soul... too many consonants... how can you have an 8 letter word with 2 vowels only?

rolf_f

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Slowandsteady wrote:

Now on a Schwalbe 1 23mm.
8)

German tyres have no soul... too many consonants... how can you have an 8 letter word with 2 vowels only?

But on the other hand the Germans at least are capable of making tyres to a consistent diameter.......

ugo.santalucia

Rolf F wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Slowandsteady wrote:

Now on a Schwalbe 1 23mm.
8)

German tyres have no soul... too many consonants... how can you have an 8 letter word with 2 vowels only?

But on the other hand the Germans at least are capable of making tyres to a consistent diameter.......

You mean the girth? In Italy we always tend to say that we've got it bigger than it actually is...

Garry H

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Slowandsteady wrote:

Now on a Schwalbe 1 23mm.
8)

German tyres have no soul... too many consonants... how can you have an 8 letter word with 2 vowels only?

I'm Welsh, I can see three vowels

duckson

Is it worth going for the 38mm over the 50mm as the weight difference looks minimal?

ugo.santalucia

duckson wrote:

Is it worth going for the 38mm over the 50mm as the weight difference looks minimal?

Modern toroidal 38 mm rims like Zipp 303 are effectively everyday wheels and unless time trialling is your thing I don't see the point in going any deeper.

Bmf21uk

I got the c50's in the end, to replace my fulcrum 5's. They are really smooth running almost silent wheels, plenty stiff enough for me at 90kg.

Get them to 18+ mph and they fly. I can freewheel and get to 42mph near me and my riding partner had to pedal to keep up. Don't notice any benefit going up though.

Braking seems fine to me, haven't had any issues (been out on wet roads but not in the rain)

ugo.santalucia

Bmf21uk wrote:

Braking seems fine to me, haven't had any issues (been out on wet roads but not in the rain)

WHy would it not be? Is it not an aluminium brake track you've got there?

Bmf21uk

Nope full carbons