Argyle carbon wheels.

casatikid

Anyone had any dealings with the Guy (Anthony Clarkson)who trades as Argyle Wheels?
Ive been looking into buying a pair from him and in the emails we have exchanged he sounds a decent bloke.He is upfront in saying the whels are imported (most are) but are a really good grade of Toray carbon.
Im not looking for anyone to start having a go about cheap imports etc,im just asking has /is anyone out there riding his wheels and what do you think of them.
As I said he seems a top bloke and a keen rider himself.Im almost touching the buy button!

schweiz

Let me start by saying my track bike has 60 mm carbon tubular rims. They're not the lightest but for track training, they're absolutely fine. They rims were true, round and easy to build with. I have no idea if the quality of carbon fibre is what it is claimed to be or how much testing has been done by the manufacturer. However, I have nothing against importing directly from open mould manufacturers in China.

I couldn't work out whether he's buying complete wheels from China/Far East or just the rims and building them up himself. If the former, there are stories (that I can't substantiate) that the wheels are not always true laterally and radially and the spoke tensions are not even. However, each wheelset may be check and rebuilt where necessary. The hubs are an unknown if they're from China too, but as Zipp owners have been finding out over the last couple of years, just because you buy the big brand, doesn't guarantee that you won't have catastrophic component failure! They're not particularly cheap though. You can get a decent enough (ultegra) set of hubs for £100, Two rims from China for £130 and spokes for £40-60 (depending on how many you need)...so sub £300 for a wheelset.

This guy needs to be careful though. He has a big disclaimer about his relationship with the Garmin team (in all its incarnations over the last 6-7 years) yet still shows badged up Mavic and FFWD wheels claiming them to be 'his' wheels. If he's selling the wheels stickered up then I can't imagine the brands being to happy about that. If the stickers were applied by the customer, then there's not much he can do but I still wouldn't use the images on the website!

casatikid

Yes I thought very much the same but he does seem a genuinely nice bloke and very enthusiastic about his wheels.You have only to look on his F/book page to see that his customers seem satisfied.Thanks for you response Schweiz.