FFWD rims

gr1

Has anyone had any experience using these rims? They can be bought rim only for €400 and I'm tempted to get them built onto Dura Ace hubs.

The F4R tubular rims are 330g which seems pretty light. And built up are looking to be about 1300g. I'm about 65kg and they will be used for racing and general riding so may be subject to some heavy use.

Will there actually be much benefit to getting these rims than say Gigantex tubs?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

napoleond

Seeing as they are gigantex rims, probably not.

gr1

Are they just standard gigantic rims? Or made by gigantic to their own spec?

The only objective test I could find was in Tour magazine a few years back where they compared favourably to 404s.

DiscoBoy

NapoleonD wrote:

Seeing as they are gigantex rims, probably not.

I thought that was no longer true?

Grill

There's nothing special about them if that's what you mean. Buy Gigantex and put the spare cash towards saving up for Enves.

gr1

Thanks for the advice. By nothing special do you mean no better than cheap no name ones? Or just not on par with the best?

Grill

No I mean that for the difference in price you will not notice any real difference.

cycleclinic

gigantex 50mm tubular rim is 430g not 330g. They do a 38mm deep rim as well but available from BHS so there will be shipping and taxes to pay. The 50mm deep rims are available in the U.K.

There are other OEM 38mm deep tubulars at about 330g in weight that are similar quality to gigantex contact a wheels builder for those. Plenty about.

ENVE 1.45 tubulars are 45mm deep 300g and £700 each. If you have the coin there is no better.

charlie_potatoes

thecycleclinic wrote:

gigantex 50mm tubular rim is 430g not 330g. They do a 38mm deep rim as well but available from BHS so there will be shipping and taxes to pay. The 50mm deep rims are available in the U.K.
.

According to the Wheelsmith site the new 50mm rims are 360-380grams?

http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk/race50-t23

gr1

Would you agree then that there isn't really any point spending the extra on the FFWD rims and at that price range any OEM rim will suffice.

Part of me was thinking that if they are just generic rims and nothing special 330g may be too light. Although they do 24/28h options instead of 20/24h so that could make them stiffer.

ugo.santalucia

If I was to build an all round set of tubs for racing, I'd probably go for these

http://www.bikehubstore.com/product-p/wh133-2024.htm

They seem to tick many boxes, including having holes for external nipples, which is not always the case (Internal drilling is a royal PITA, especially in the case of tubulars). 30 mm is not the deepest profile out there, but it works well in all conditions, handles well. If you saw the Ardennes classics, they were all on 30 mm tubs (give or take).
They also look solid, an ERD of 581 means the nipple bed is 2 mm thicker than a Kinlin XR 300. At your weight they should perform well even as 20/24 and if you are worried about stiffness, yu can have the rear built with DT Aerocomp instead of CX Ray, sacrificing 50 grams.

The price is very good, even when you factor in delivery and duties