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Yet another wheel thread

ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
I'm in the hunt for one more set of tubular wheels for cross next season. Our early season races are dry and rough so I stray away from using my carbon wheels. I have a set of Bontrager Race X Lite and while they are nice wheels the amount of drag generated from the cartridge bearings is annoying.

My DA hubs on the my carbon wheels have held up very well and the ball bearings roll fast and smooth. I'm thinking about building up a set of DA hubs to Reflex rims. Are there any other hubs/rims I should consider? I don't want a cartridge bearing hub, and I'm not sure who is using ball bearings. It would be a lot easier if I could find something prebuilt.
 
Buck Fever

Buck Fever

Monkey
Jul 12, 2004
255
0
Hipsterville USA
I don't think the dry conditions make a good reason to stay away from carbon if you like and can afford them. I absolutely hammered my Edge 2.38's last year including riding a full lap with a flat in the gravel pit (Barlow? I can't remember the venue) at my race speed. At the Wilsonville race, Nate from Signal and I swapped bikes mid lap and he performed a flying remount with my bike at 45 degrees - rolled my tubie, rim hit the asphalt HARD. I thought the rim would be toast but there, quite literally, wasn't a scratch on it. I'm sold on the durability of the 2 series rims. I just built up a set of 1.68s and it's obvious that there's much less material. We'll see how they hold up next year.
 
ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
Buck Fever said:
I don't think the dry conditions make a good reason to stay away from carbon if you like and can afford them. I absolutely hammered my Edge 2.38's last year including riding a full lap with a flat in the gravel pit (Barlow? I can't remember the venue) at my race speed. At the Wilsonville race, Nate from Signal and I swapped bikes mid lap and he performed a flying remount with my bike at 45 degrees - rolled my tubie, rim hit the asphalt HARD. I thought the rim would be toast but there, quite literally, wasn't a scratch on it. I'm sold on the durability of the 2 series rims. I just built up a set of 1.68s and it's obvious that there's much less material. We'll see how they hold up next year.
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I broke a set of Zipp wheels last year on the dry rough courses, for that reason I won't use my Zipps on the fast, rough, courses that we have in the early season. I have two sets of Zipp wheels and I save them for the wet conditions.
 
Buck Fever

Buck Fever

Monkey
Jul 12, 2004
255
0
Hipsterville USA
But those were Zipps...just sayin

Reflex is a decent rim. I've seen quite a few develop cracks around the eyelets after a few seasons though. I hear good things about, but have no experience with, Ambrosio Nemisis rims.
 
ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
I have a dumb question about wheel building and strength. I have two sets of zipp wheels, 28h, that are laced radial front and 2 cross rear. Could I get away with radial on the non drive side rear with 32h DA/Reflex combo? Or am I risking disaster?
 
O

oldfart

Turbo Monkey
Jul 5, 2001
1,206
24
North Van
Maybe the Stan's 700C tubeless? I hear these are very nice and don't seem to have the burping issues some guys have with tubeless. Wider rim too which might explain the lack of burping.

For tubular I don't think you can go wrong with the Mavic rims.

You could go radial on one side on the rear but I don't think it's worthwhile. You won't save much weight and you may give up some torsional strength for a tiny bit of latteral stiffness. And with a soft cross tire, who cares.
 
Buck Fever

Buck Fever

Monkey
Jul 12, 2004
255
0
Hipsterville USA
ire said:
I have a dumb question about wheel building and strength. I have two sets of zipp wheels, 28h, that are laced radial front and 2 cross rear. Could I get away with radial on the non drive side rear with 32h DA/Reflex combo? Or am I risking disaster?
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You might be able to get away with it but why would you want to? Build it bomber with 2x or 3x and some WS XL 14 spokes.
 
ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
Onto my next dilemma....what rims to select. My choices are:


I was originally going to go with the Reflex but I'm thinking about getting the Ambrosio rime due to the brand/reputation. I like the Velocity rim, but my friend cracked on in three spots at the last cross race; anyone have experience with them?
 
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Buck Fever

Buck Fever

Monkey
Jul 12, 2004
255
0
Hipsterville USA
ire said:
Onto my next dilemma....what rims to select. My choices are:


I was originally going to go with the Reflex but I'm thinking about getting the Ambrosio rime due to the brand/reputation. I like the Velocity rim, but my friend cracked on in three spots at the last cross race; anyone have experience with them?
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Either the Reflex or the Crono. Not a big fan of Velocity product here. I've had several problems with brand new rims from them over the years. Great company though and perfect customer service record with me.
 
ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
Buck Fever said:
Either the Reflex or the Crono. Not a big fan of Velocity product here. I've had several problems with brand new rims from them over the years. Great company though and perfect customer service record with me.
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Have any experience with Ambrosio?
 
Buck Fever

Buck Fever

Monkey
Jul 12, 2004
255
0
Hipsterville USA
ire said:
Have any experience with Ambrosio?
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I don't but I'm heading that way for all future tubular builds. As I said, I've heard good things. Mavic seems to have taken a turn for the worse in the past few years. For all the alu clincher wheels I've been building (with rare exception) I've been sticking with DT/Swiss rims but I don't think they do a tubie. I sure wish FIR was still around.
 
ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
I went with the Ambrosio Crono F20, should be here in one to two weeks. The shipment to Ital Tecno is held up at US customs right now

 
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