Carbon Wheel Spokes Question

chiefwigham

Hi - currently researching carbon wheels and was wondering if anyone could explain the difference between those wheels where the spoke goes through the fairing and onto the rim (I presume) and those where the spoke attaches onto the fairing itself?? Is one set up "better" than the other?

Thanks in Advance

ugo.santalucia

The first type use an aluminium rim and a fairing glued to the alloy. The spokes sit on the aluminium rim bed and are trued from the rim bed using typically a 5 mm hexagonal wrench.

The second type use structural carbon and the nipple sits on a carbon bed. The nipple can be internal (Enve, Reynolds etc.) or external (Zipp and all chinese wheels). In the former case you need a long hexagonal (or square) wrench, in the latter case a normal 3.25 spoke key + aero holder does the job.

In terms of aerodynamics there is no difference, in terms of stiffness the latter is normally stiffer as a fairing has no mechanical property (most of them are floppy), but that's not cast in stone as stiffness also depends on spoke number/type, flange width etc.

Grill

Are you talking about carbon vs. carbon, as in those used on the Mavic Ksyrium SLR as opposed to Ultimates/Lightweights/RZR's?

chiefwigham

I'd been looking at Mavic Cosmic carbone SLE - HED Jet6 and wheelsmith aero 60 - if that makes sense? And just noticed the different spoke/fairing interfaces.

ugo.santalucia

chiefwigham wrote:

I'd been looking at Mavic Cosmic carbone SLE - HED Jet6 and wheelsmith aero 60 - if that makes sense? And just noticed the different spoke/fairing interfaces.

Very different things... Cosmic SLE and HED Jet have floppy carbon fairing glued on an aluminium rim... braking is as good as any rim... wet or dry, no problem dealing with long descents etc...

The others are full carbon rims and will most likely explode if you drag your brakes down a steep descent...

That's probably the most important difference, I would say