New wheels - expected life carbon vs ali

gregwari

Hopefully I'll have squirrelled enough cash away by April to upgrade my wheels. I've got around £800 - £1000 to spend which puts me in the market for either a pair of Fulcrum Zero's (ali) or Token C28's (carbon). Is there any reason / history / experience that says that either carbon or ali wheels will last significantly longer than the other?

Cheers

cycleclinic

It does depend on how often you ride them in the rain. My own carbon wheels have the thousand ,lies on them and no visible rim wear yet.

gregwari

Hi

The plan will be to use the stock wheels that came with the bike for winter riding and the new bling for summer riding (April to October in all likelihood). With that in mind, any reasons for concern?

Ta

Mr Dog

Another factor is riding style.. do you tend to grab fist fulls of brake on descents? If you go down the carbon route save yourself a fortune and get handbuilts with inexpensive rims. The Cycle Clinic, Ugo, Wheelsmith etc all offer wheelsets for less than your Tokens and if the worst happens you can have them repaired.

neeb

I'm not aware myself of any significant longevity differences between carbon and alu rims in normal use. In fact, I wonder if they could even last longer as long as you don't crash them badly or overheat them (and the modern rims are much better at dissipating heat). I have a set of Reynolds 32s that must have over 6000 miles on them and basically I can see no real evidence of rim wear whatsoever. An aluminium rim would at least have some visible wear from braking over the same mileage. That said I've rarely used them in the wet.

I'd actually be quite interested to hear if anyone has ever properly worn out a set of carbon rims (as opposed to breaking them or having them delaminate from overheating), and how long they lasted.

Of course you could snap them in half in a bad crash, but chances are an alu rim would be too bent to be worthwhile trying to fix in the same situation.

I think there are probably much more important considerations in choosing between a carbon and alu rim than longevity in normal use.

ugo.santalucia

I have never seen a worn out carbon rim... in fact I am quite curious to see how they wear out.
They have to be used in combination with very soft non abrasive pads and most folks will only use them in good weather. I suspect as carbon becomes more mainstream, we will see winter damage on those rims too.

The thing is that the price doesn't seem to come down... even the cheapest imports of unknown quality rarely cost less than 100 quid a piece, which is twice as much as an alloy rim and 4-5 times as much as the equivalent alloy chinese import

Token is a "sticker maker"... as a company they only put logos on a number of products... I suspect you can buy the same thing cheaper without their stickers. As mentioned above, have a look at what Wheelsmith offers... like for like you will get more for your money

bernithebiker

I agree that carbon rims do not really seem to wear as the pads are soft.

Lightweight does offer a service to recondition your braking surface though.....