Superstar Components carbon wheels?

yaya

Hi, does anyone here have any experience with Superstar Components wheels? They currently have an interesting offer of 32mm rims with Icon hubs (never heard of them) & Reynolds pads, 2 yr warranty and lifetime truing service at £400?

http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/carbon-clincher-icon-hubs-2024-hole.htm

Interesting or stay away?

meanredspider

Have a read of this thread

viewtopic.php?f=40042&t=13001539

marpick

Woohoo! Here we go again, paging ugo

yaya

Thanks guys...gonna need some popcorn for those 16 pages...although from just sifting through nobody mentions the carbon rims and the icon hubs...

ugo.santalucia

yaya wrote:

.although from just sifting through nobody mentions the carbon rims and the icon hubs...

Exactly...

We did enquire about those rims a couple of months back and it appears they are based on the Reynolds Design, but they are not Reynolds... that's what we gathered, so needs to be confirmed.
There is a thread on the Icon hubs, which are Novatec 291/482 with upgraded bearings, basically instead of the Japanese EZO bearings, you get the Swedish/German SKF, which are better quality. The price is good, the components are better than many around, the only thing that can let them down is build quality. Mr SS is adamant his building line is the best in Europe and the quality is second to none... others see things differently...

paxington

yaya wrote:

Hi, does anyone here have any experience with Superstar Components wheels? They currently have an interesting offer of 32mm rims with Icon hubs (never heard of them) & Reynolds pads, 2 yr warranty and lifetime truing service at £400?

http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/carbon-clincher-icon-hubs-2024-hole.htm

Interesting or stay away?

Can't comment on those particular wheels themselves but having bought a set of the Pacenti rimmed wheels (as per the other thread) I can say that Superstar is a very professional, switched on company to deal with. I'd have no hesitation buying from them again in the future.

ugo.santalucia

I found the reply we got re. the rims... make of it what you want...

Hello, thank you for your question. Due to our manufacturers OE product agreement we are not allowed to comment on the manufacturer origin. All our parts are manufactured by some of the largest and most respected brands in the industry who manufacture parts for lots of other brands brands than their own.

darkhairedlord

THey claim these carbon clincher rims are race proven on the giro, vuelta and tdf.

ugo.santalucia

darkhairedlord wrote:

THey claim these carbon clincher rims are race proven on the giro, vuelta and tdf.

Never seen anyone riding clinchers in any of the above... :shock: :roll:

flasher

ugo.santalucia wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

THey claim these carbon clincher rims are race proven on the giro, vuelta and tdf.

Never seen anyone riding clinchers in any of the above... :shock: :roll:

You're not looking hard enough, AG2R on assorted Reynolds, Tony Martin on Specialized to name but two at the TdF.

ugo.santalucia

Flasher wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

THey claim these carbon clincher rims are race proven on the giro, vuelta and tdf.

Never seen anyone riding clinchers in any of the above... :shock: :roll:

You're not looking hard enough, AG2R on assorted Reynolds, Tony Martin on Specialized to name but two at the TdF.

Fair enough, after checking, in 2011 they indeed rode 46 clinchers at the Tour de France... is anyone pursuing this route or is it a one off?
As a rule of thumb professional racing on clinchers is a bad idea. The only advantages of clinchers (shorter fitting time, smaller spares to carry and less expensive tyres) do not apply to the world of racing while the main drawback (a tyre which is kept in place by pressure is less safe than one kept in place with adhesives) is there

Based on this claim, the rims have to be Reynolds 46.

yaya

Reynolds (from their website) had a 32mm wheel back in 2011 and it's profile does look quite similar to the SS C32...http://www.reynoldscycling.com/archive/index.php?p_resource=items_wheels_item&p_itm_pk=646

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

(a tyre which is kept in place by pressure is less safe than one kept in place with adhesives)

Is there data to support that (genuine question because it surprised me)? The reason I ask is that I've heard lots of stories of pros having tubs roll off their rims. Added to which, even F1 road tyres are held in place by (very low) pressures. A roadie clincher at over 100psi I'd have thought was very secure - after all, a bicycle can't generate very high cornering Gs

napoleond

It's if you puncture, much better on a tub than a clincher.

crossed

Just to let you know, Superstar have 20% off everything today with the code XMAS21 so it'll bring the price of the wheels down a bit.

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

Is there data to support that (genuine question because it surprised me)? The reason I ask is that I've heard lots of stories of pros having tubs roll off their rims. Added to which, even F1 road tyres are held in place by (very low) pressures. A roadie clincher at over 100psi I'd have thought was very secure - after all, a bicycle can't generate very high cornering Gs

Anedoctal evidence, if you are looking for statistics, I am afraid you won't find any.

In years of watching races I have never seen a tubular roll off... there were rumours that Beloki had a tubular roll off, but there seems to be more consensus that he actually came off his bike before any tyre rolled off the rim due to a bad patch of tarmac. Tubulars which are badly glued or taped with the Jantex stuff can in theory come off the rim, but that's not the tubular's fault, rather cutting corners. It doesn't happen in professional cycling, or at least it is extremely rare.

Clinchers coming off the rim when punctured are pretty common place, it happened to me a couple of years ago... nothing dramatic, except a badly scratched rim. I had to replace a few rims to people who had the same happening... one of them spend some time in A&E. The speeds they reach in PRO racing are different though... the risk is multiplied

Hopefully tubeless will reduce the risk as a tubeless tyre on a tubeless rim has more chances to stay in place even with zero pressure... at least long enough to get to a safe stop.

Not sure why F1 has to be put in the equation, it's got nothing to do with bicycles. Car tyres to be glued on the rim have never been developed, so that's a non starter...

jimwalsh

I have rolled a tub in a CX race but it was my fault for not gluing them myself.

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

It doesn't happen in professional cycling, or at least it is extremely rare.

Clinchers coming off the rim when punctured are pretty common place,

Not sure why F1 has to be put in the equation, it's got nothing to do with bicycles. Car tyres to be glued on the rim have never been developed, so that's a non starter...

OK - I've just read quite a few cycling books (biogs etc) where it seemed to get mentioned quite often so it didn't seem extremely rare. That's my anecdotal evidence.

But, if we're talking about punctured tyres, I guess it makes more sense - though a punctured tyre of either sort doesn't provide a lot of lateral grip. And obviously, as clinchers are far more common, accidents related to them are far more common.

I mentioned F1 because they are clinchers that run at low pressures and extreme loads - but at that point I didn't realise you were referring to punctured tyres. Incidentally, you're incorrect about car tyres not being glued to the rims - previously I've had exactly that done with the tyres on my race car to prevent them slipping on the rims when cold - but that's way off-topic.

gabriel959

I have to say that at £320 they are a bit of a bargain as they are UK based, have decent hubs, and they have got a decent 2 year warranty.

DKay

They do look great value. The same price as Chinese carbon wheels, but backed up with a UK warrantee.

Bear in mind though, that they aren't 11speed compatible.

Goggs-san

I'm realy tempted by these. Am I dreaming weighing 87kg ?. With the rims being deeper will they be stronger.

I'm running mavic cxp22 rims on felt hubs 28/32 at the moment. They have done 4500 miles on some horrendous roads. In the last 200 miles I have broke 2 spokes on the front wheel though. No potholes, just popped.

paul_mck

dont know if they compare or not but I got a set of these a few weeks back. found a code on their FB page for 15% off so were 339inc delivery.

http://www.zuus.co.uk/zuus-s50-carbon-f ... rim-depth/

30day return if you dont like them and 2 yr warranty. I guess they are just rebranded chinese wheels but thought Id give them a go. Havent been out on them yet as weather is terrible here.

ugo.santalucia

Goggs-san wrote:

I'm running mavic cxp22 rims on felt hubs 28/32 at the moment. They have done 4500 miles on some horrendous roads. In the last 200 miles I have broke 2 spokes on the front wheel though. No potholes, just popped.

In my experience "horrendous roads" are not responsible for spoke failures, not directly at least. Front wheels should be pretty much fit and forget, especially if they have 28 + spokes. You are breaking spokes because the quality of the spokes is shocking, the quality of the build is shocking, most likely both.

Carbon rims are nice, but even if they are on offer, they are still a premium race oriented product with advantages and limitations... I can't see you riding these through the worst of winter, so even if you buy them, you should consider repairing yours or getting a budget set as well

DKay

I took the plunge and ordered a set of these wheels using Superstar's custom configurator and they arrived today. I specced 20/24 46mm rims, Sapim Lazer spokes, Icon 11spd. hubs in black and brass nipples.

Weights are front: 676g, rear: 816g, which is 1492g the pair excluding rim tapes.

Without checking tensions, build seems fine, but the external rim widths are interesting. The 20-hole front measures 21.8mm external, but the 24-hole rear measures 21.3mm. Internal width is 15mm on both wheels.

paxington

DKay wrote:

I took the plunge and ordered a set of these wheels using Superstar's custom configurator and they arrived today. I specced 20/24 46mm rims, Sapim Lazer spokes, Icon 11spd. hubs in black and brass nipples.

Weights are front: 676g, rear: 816g, which is 1492g the pair excluding rim tapes.

Without checking tensions, build seems fine, but the external rim widths are interesting. The 20-hole front measures 21.8mm external, but the 24-hole rear measures 21.3mm. Internal width is 15mm on both wheels.

Could be that they allow a bit more "meat" on the brake track up-front as it takes more of the braking stress/wear ? Just guessing here I should stress.

DKay

paxington wrote:

DKay wrote:

I took the plunge and ordered a set of these wheels using Superstar's custom configurator and they arrived today. I specced 20/24 46mm rims, Sapim Lazer spokes, Icon 11spd. hubs in black and brass nipples.

Weights are front: 676g, rear: 816g, which is 1492g the pair excluding rim tapes.

Without checking tensions, build seems fine, but the external rim widths are interesting. The 20-hole front measures 21.8mm external, but the 24-hole rear measures 21.3mm. Internal width is 15mm on both wheels.

Could be that they allow a bit more "meat" on the brake track up-front as it takes more of the braking stress/wear ? Just guessing here I should stress.

No idea. I'm not complaining though.

ugo.santalucia

DKay wrote:

Without checking tensions, build seems fine,

The only way to check if the build is fine is to check tensions, if you have a way to check the tensions with a calibrated gauge, I would advise you to do so. Pinging the spokes won't give you a number.

DKay wrote:

but the external rim widths are interesting. The 20-hole front measures 21.8mm external, but the 24-hole rear measures 21.3mm. Internal width is 15mm on both wheels.

The 32 should be based on the old Attack, which were 20.8 mm wide according to Reynolds.
The 46 should be based on the old Assault which also were 20.8 mm wide according to Reynolds.

IF they are Reynolds as the Tour de France claim seems to imply, then front and rear rims should have the same width.. give or take. Provided you have measured them correctly, half a mm seems quite a difference. Are you using a decent Vernier or a cheap Chinese one? Do they have the swirl lip generator? Are you measuring them at hte same point in both cases?

DKay

ugo.santalucia wrote:

DKay wrote:

but the external rim widths are interesting. The 20-hole front measures 21.8mm external, but the 24-hole rear measures 21.3mm. Internal width is 15mm on both wheels.

The 32 should be based on the old Attack, which were 20.8 mm wide according to Reynolds.
The 46 should be based on the old Assault which also were 20.8 mm wide according to Reynolds.

IF they are Reynolds as the Tour de France claim seems to imply, then front and rear rims should have the same width.. give or take. Provided you have measured them correctly, half a mm seems quite a difference. Are you using a decent Vernier or a cheap Chinese one? Do they have the swirl lip generator? Are you measuring them at hte same point in both cases?

I'm using a digital vernier caliper, which may or may not be the last word in accuracy as it was given to me as a present. However, I've checked it against things like my seatpost diameter and the Pacenti SL23 wheels I also bought and at the most, it reads +0.1mm. So I stand by my initial measurements. I did measure both rims at the same points on the caliper jaws and obviously as perpendicular to the rim as possible.

There is no swirl lip generator on the rims. Here is a couple of pics of my wheels.

arran77

paul_mck wrote:

dont know if they compare or not but I got a set of these a few weeks back. found a code on their FB page for 15% off so were 339inc delivery.

http://www.zuus.co.uk/zuus-s50-carbon-f ... rim-depth/

30day return if you dont like them and 2 yr warranty. I guess they are just rebranded chinese wheels but thought Id give them a go. Havent been out on them yet as weather is terrible here.

Anyone know if the Zuus wheels are just rebranded Chinese stuff? Are they any better than the Chinese stuff on eBay?

ugo.santalucia

DKay wrote:

There is no swirl lip generator on the rims. Here is a couple of pics of my wheels.

Then you got your answer... they are not Reynolds rims and the claims about being tested in the Grand Tours are bollox...

Reynolds allegedly tested their carbon clinchers at the 2011 TdF with Ag2R... but if you look at the 2012 catalogue you will see they have the swirl lip thingy

yaya

DKay wrote:

I took the plunge and ordered a set of these wheels using Superstar's custom configurator and they arrived today. I specced 20/24 46mm rims, Sapim Lazer spokes, Icon 11spd. hubs in black and brass nipples.

Weights are front: 676g, rear: 816g, which is 1492g the pair excluding rim tapes.

Without checking tensions, build seems fine, but the external rim widths are interesting. The 20-hole front measures 21.8mm external, but the 24-hole rear measures 21.3mm. Internal width is 15mm on both wheels.

Will be looking to hear your riding experience...I'm looking a the 32mm set that might feel a bit "softer"...