Experiences with value Chinese carbon wheels?

dannyjames1

I'm after some new wheels for my bike with some deeper rims for general summer riding and to have a go at a few 10 mile TT s with. Was looking at some 34mm deep lightwright novatecs but just don't think they'll cut it in terms of aero advantage.

Now I'm looking at some on eBay, a UK account reselling from China. I can get 50mm, 60 rear carbon clinchers for £320. Plain, not made to imitate any other brand and built on novatec 271 hubs and I believe they have some degree of quality control. Given my good experience with Chinese frames specifically ones from Dengfu this is very tempting but I thought I'd see if anyone has any advice or experience with Chinese wheels?

sloppyschleckonds

Quality control is key here, Light Bicycle and Farsports among the better sellers.
The rest you are taking chances.

Matthewfalle

Used Carbon zone ones for years for racing, training, commuting.

Can't fault them - worth every penny.

shirley_basso

Check out weight weenies for a list of good retailers. They have this well covered but SS listed the main 2.

Carbon zone, hongfu are 2 others. Also flyxii or something

helterskelter

You can get 50mm deep prime clinchers on wiggle for under £500. I got the 38mm ones a few weeks ago and have been very impressed. I have a few bits of chinese carbon which I have been impressed with, but for the cash involved I wanted the piece of mind of having a warranty. Wiggle should also let you do 12 months interest free finance too.

288GTO

Helterskelter wrote:

You can get 50mm deep prime clinchers on wiggle for under £500. I got the 38mm ones a few weeks ago and have been very impressed. I have a few bits of chinese carbon which I have been impressed with, but for the cash involved I wanted the piece of mind of having a warranty. Wiggle should also let you do 12 months interest free finance too.

I already have a new pair Zipp 808's, Dura Ace 9150 Di2 groupset, ready to go for the frame. BTW I ordered the frame at 40% off. Looking forward to building it this weekend!

dannyjames1

Helterskelter wrote:

You can get 50mm deep prime clinchers on wiggle for under £500. I got the 38mm ones a few weeks ago and have been very impressed. I have a few bits of chinese carbon which I have been impressed with, but for the cash involved I wanted the piece of mind of having a warranty. Wiggle should also let you do 12 months interest free finance too.

Disc version only unfortunately or I'd go for that. Found some forza carbon clinchers at a reasonable price too but they are rather heavy at just shy of 2kg so I'll be avoiding.

farsports are looking like a viable option, possibly carbonzone. I'm just not sure about the shipping and how strict customs are on the import charges or wether it would just get through no problem. One time, I was send some candle things from America and Royal Mail wanted £10 for customs fees even though the bloody thing was labeled as a gift.

Option b could be some pre owned Cosmics or something but I'd prefer to buy new unless I found something with little miles on them.

sloppyschleckonds

If something is coming in from China over £50 you will probably get hit with charges nowadays.

shirley_basso

Why are you buying a TT set if you have a set of 808s?

If anything the 34mm ones you've seen are perfect to accompany them on hillier/windier days, unless I am missing something

dannyjames1

From doing a bit of digging I've found out that people are often paying £25-50 imports on these wheels coming in from China which isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Rim depth/winds are something I've been thinking about a fair bit especially being a fairly light rider (135-140lb). Once I'm in the hills it's alright but the first/last 10 or so miles of my rides can be fairly windy with living on the coast and going out through the mosses which are pretty flat for the most part. I think 50mm could be a good trade off but if I could get that with a 60 on the rear then great. Would I need valve stem extenders too or just inner tubes with long valves?

Is it true that carbon rims with carbon/basalt brake tracks are not really suited to long & winding descents involving a fair amount of braking?

svetty

Had 2 pairs of rims from LB and they seem to have slipped through Customs OK........

trek_dan

dannyjames1 wrote:

Is it true that carbon rims with carbon/basalt brake tracks are not really suited to long & winding descents involving a fair amount of braking?

Yes. Two methods of failure - get hot and burst tube or melt the brake wall. I would say long winding descents should be ok but I wouldn't want to take them to the Lakes or similar.

dannyjames1

I think I'm decided.

https://www.baxcarbon.co.uk/product-pag ... -combo-set
or
http://www.zuus.co.uk/zuus-pro-carbon-s ... -save-200/

Little more expensive than ordering from China but I'd be backed by a UK warranty and no possible charges slapped on at the border.

shamrock134

I bought some 60mm clinchers from this eBay shop... http://stores.ebay.co.uk/carbonspeedcycle

I got them on the recommendation from a mate who has two pairs, one he races in CX and one he's used in Alps without issue. Total was about £390 after import charges.

So far they've been on a few rides and one crit and behaved as you'd expect a wheel to. Can't really tell the difference between them and my Zipps!

sloppyschleckonds

dannyjames1 wrote:

I think I'm decided.

https://www.baxcarbon.co.uk/product-pag ... -combo-set
or
http://www.zuus.co.uk/zuus-pro-carbon-s ... -save-200/

Little more expensive than ordering from China but I'd be backed by a UK warranty and no possible charges slapped on at the border.

Do you know what hubs are on the Zuus? The Bax look like Novatechs

Matthewfalle

dannyjames1 wrote:

From doing a bit of digging I've found out that people are often paying £25-50 imports on these wheels coming in from China which isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Rim depth/winds are something I've been thinking about a fair bit especially being a fairly light rider (135-140lb). Once I'm in the hills it's alright but the first/last 10 or so miles of my rides can be fairly windy with living on the coast and going out through the mosses which are pretty flat for the most part. I think 50mm could be a good trade off but if I could get that with a 60 on the rear then great. Would I need valve stem extenders too or just inner tubes with long valves?

Is it true that carbon rims with carbon/basalt brake tracks are not really suited to long & winding descents involving a fair amount of braking?[/quote]

Only if you don't know how to brake properly.

Never had a problem riding mine in the Abruzzo and they are Giro standard climbs (and descents, totes obvs).

brit66

Bought a set of Chinese wheels about 18 months ago for £400 (plus £50 import tax) as I couldn't justify to myself paying more than this for a deep wheels which I was skeptical about making much difference to my speed anyway. Thought I might as well go as aero as possible and got 60mm.

They definitely make a noticeably difference to speed compared to my shallow wheelsets, but this isn't earth shattering. I not only wanted to see for myself what differnce they made to speed, but also braking, stiffness, and of course the overall looks of deep section rims appealed.

They were both very slightly out of true so got them trued at my LBS. Back has done out of true very slightly since. I've hit some very large pot holes and they've been fine.

I think Chinese carbon rims are okay, but the build quality can be poor in terms of how they are put together (not the components really). This can be overcome easily however.

I think they are okay but if I was a 'serious' cyclist with competition in mind, I'd go for branded tubs every time.

sloppyschleckonds

Matthewfalle wrote:

dannyjames1 wrote:

From doing a bit of digging I've found out that people are often paying £25-50 imports on these wheels coming in from China which isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Rim depth/winds are something I've been thinking about a fair bit especially being a fairly light rider (135-140lb). Once I'm in the hills it's alright but the first/last 10 or so miles of my rides can be fairly windy with living on the coast and going out through the mosses which are pretty flat for the most part. I think 50mm could be a good trade off but if I could get that with a 60 on the rear then great. Would I need valve stem extenders too or just inner tubes with long valves?

Is it true that carbon rims with carbon/basalt brake tracks are not really suited to long & winding descents involving a fair amount of braking?[/quote]

Only if you don't know how to brake properly.

Never had a problem riding mine in the Abruzzo and they are Giro standard climbs (and descents, totes obvs).

Never agree with someone who cannot use the quote function
Carbon basalt are as good if not better than disk breaks

rokt

I wouldn’t if I was you ! I have experience of the Zuss wheels and to be frank, they’re crap. Braking on them is scary and the 50mm’s really did catch the wind, I was blown all over the road. I can’t comment on the Bax wheels, but they do have a striking resemblance to the Zuss, just different graphics.

bobones

Rokt wrote:

I wouldn’t if I was you ! I have experience of the Zuss wheels and to be frank, they’re crap. Braking on them is scary and the 50mm’s really did catch the wind, I was blown all over the road. I can’t comment on the Bax wheels, but they do have a striking resemblance to the Zuss, just different graphics.

I have had a set of Zuus 50mm for almost 3 years with 10k miles on them and find braking to be absolutely fine in wet or dry, and I've never had any issues using them in the wind. In fact, I'd go as far to say that they're actually great in the wind. But perhaps Zuss wheels are totally different from Zuus and you're not actually full of it.

bobones

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Never agree with someone who cannot use the quote function
Carbon basalt are as good if not better than disk breaks

I wouldn't trust the opinion of someone who can't spell 'brake'.

rokt

Bloody spell check on the iPad !

No, sorry, not full of it as you say. Just telling it how I find it.

I can't believe you find the brakes surface and those cork type brake pads acceptable.
If you disagree with my comments on the wheels catching the wind, read the reviews, they really
don't come out well.

trek_dan

Rokt wrote:

Bloody spell check on the iPad !

No, sorry, not full of it as you say. Just telling it how I find it.

I can't believe you find the brakes surface and those cork type brake pads acceptable.
If you disagree with my comments on the wheels catching the wind, read the reviews, they really
don't come out well.

The cork pads that Chinese wheels come with aren't great, swap them for Lifeline Blue - only a few quid and loads better.

cookeeemonster

I've had a pair of 50mm zuus wheels for a couple years. They're ok, braking is fine in the dry, less so in the wet compared to aluminium rims. I've recently changed the pads to the wiggle ones so will find out at some point how good they are in the wet.

As a heavier rider I don't get blown around in crosswinds like some people unless they are very strong.

I can't complain for £360.

StillGoing

My first set of carbon tubs were from Carbon Zone and I couldn't fault them. Excellent value for money.

shirley_basso

My first set of carbon clinchers were from a now closed Amp Hoops. Pretty great wheels at a bargain price but with some caveats:

Had to be retrued (just a mm or so)
I rode them through the winter and the spokes and nipples sort of seized

Rims were still in excellent condition.

Other than that, braking was excellent with the lifeline blue pads, cartridge hubs easy to replace, made the right wooshing sound and looked good on my bike. I think they were identical to Zuus, with the narrower internal rim width.

I now have a pair of Zipp 303s and while they are a bit stiffer, they are not noticeably faster, may be smoother due to wider rim width, but not 4x better (given £400 - £1600 price difference), but they came on a bike I bought.

I wouldn't hesistate to buy the chinese ones again.

bobones

Rokt wrote:

Bloody spell check on the iPad !

No, sorry, not full of it as you say. Just telling it how I find it.

I can't believe you find the brakes surface and those cork type brake pads acceptable.
If you disagree with my comments on the wheels catching the wind, read the reviews, they really
don't come out well.

I've been using the Wiggle blue carbon pads since I can remember and there is no drama with braking even in the wet. Admittedly they're not as sharp as aluminium rims, but stopping power is more than adequate and probably on a par with most other carbon rims. The original cork pads were noisy from what I remember.

As for performance in the wind: the wide, U-shaped profile is generally accepted to be far superior to narrow V shaped rims of old, and I don't think twice about using them unless there are gusts in excess of 40mph when I probably won't be going out on a bike at all. At 70kg I'm not in the heavyweight class either.

If I was going to criticise my Zuus wheels, it would be that the Novatec hubs were supplied with pretty crappy bearings that develop play and go rough pretty quickly, but I've replaced these with SKFs and they're silky smooth once more. The older version of the 50 I have are also a bit heavy compared to the new versions with straight pull hubs. But, after 10k miles, the rims still look great with hardly any signs of wear on the brake track, the spokes are spotless, and I've never had to put a spokey near them.

Based on my experience, I would have no hesitation in recommending Zuus wheels as they're decent value compared to importing direct from China, particularly as they're backed with a UK warranty, have a money back guarantee, crash replacement policy, and they'll give you decent support should you have any problems.

What wide carbon rims do you currently ride?

dannyjames1

Rokt wrote:

Bloody spell check on the iPad !

No, sorry, not full of it as you say. Just telling it how I find it.

I can't believe you find the brakes surface and those cork type brake pads acceptable.
If you disagree with my comments on the wheels catching the wind, read the reviews, they really
don't come out well.

Possibly the cork pads causing the issue there. I've heard that they aren't very good at all and people tend to upgrade to lifeline or swiss pads

kingrollo

i Have a set of unused - still boxed rs81 c50 - (cheapest new price £700 from merlin)

I brought them to build up my next bike - but now have have decided to go disc - £550 + postage if your interested.

ExCyclist

shamrock134 wrote:

I bought some 60mm clinchers from this eBay shop... http://stores.ebay.co.uk/carbonspeedcycle

I got them on the recommendation from a mate who has two pairs, one he races in CX and one he's used in Alps without issue. Total was about £390 after import charges.

So far they've been on a few rides and one crit and behaved as you'd expect a wheel to. Can't really tell the difference between them and my Zipps!

Any updates on these wheels?

Candyon

trek_dan wrote:

dannyjames1 wrote:

Is it true that carbon rims with carbon/basalt brake tracks are not really suited to long & winding descents involving a fair amount of braking?

Yes. Two methods of failure - get hot and burst tube or melt the brake wall. I would say long winding descents should be ok but I wouldn't want to take them to the Lakes or similar.

I did the Lakeland Loop yesterday on my 50mm carbon clinchers from Farsports paired with Wiggle Lifeline Blue pads. Made it down Hardknott and Wrynose Pass in one piece.

I did have issues mentioned above in the back of my mind so maybe didn't decend as quickly as I may have done on alloy rims.
Though I wouldn't expect myself to be much quicker with alloy rims.
I won't be doing the Fred Whitton on those rims next month although braking felt fine I just had comments as above in the back of my mind affecting my confidence all day. Also the wind up Hardknott blew me off the road near the top. Fortunately got my foot down ok, trying to get back going it just blew me over.