Not that true with 823s and a good wheelbuilder makes a huge differance. On my old wheel the spokes stretched a bit. Now I have a rear wheel built by a local wheel freak and I hardly have to tension them.
carbon rims for life?
- Thread starter saruti
- Start date
Thanks for the reply Stabprimo, turns out they made Ti rims in the 70's and they were crap but I imagine a carbon rim would have been crap if they made it in the seventies too.
Oh I have two sets of wheels built with CX-Ray spokes too, great minds think alike eh?
Neither of us have added any useful info to this thread and if you think you have you are as clueless as you assume I am.
Oh I have two sets of wheels built with CX-Ray spokes too, great minds think alike eh?
Neither of us have added any useful info to this thread and if you think you have you are as clueless as you assume I am.
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@HardtailHack: Your reply was so sweet you made go back and edit my post. Sorry for being a jerk.
Actually you might be wrong on that one. The DT rim I posted was rumored to be only slightly sideways loaded from a trial styles move to get around a tight switchback (lifting rear wheel around the switchback while doing a stoppie). So no high speed impact and such. And personally I have never seen a rim cracked at the valve hole, so there is something unusual going on with this rim.
fair enough. cracking thru the valve stem implies some form of funny business for sure. layup related likely. i would assume DT sent a warranty rim the same day it was called in.
The difference in quality and durability between a DT and Enve rim is very significant.
All of Enve's composite products are all significantly better in terms of strength and function than any other vendor. The fact that they are the only people to manufacture rims in North America is pretty important to me.
Anecdote:
I've been using the XC rims for slalom, dirthumping and the occasional day of hardtail DH at Highland as well as general xc and all-mountain style trail riding. This is the 3rd year. They just now need some retensioning. I'll have to pull the rim strip and spend 20 minutes spinning nipples...
Another friend of mine has 2 years of the same stuff plus 20+ XC races on his wheels.
Both of us are wheel smashers when we ride metal rims.
We should be running the AM rims because we've had a few tires pop off the rim due to stiffness. With the King hubs we're both running I expect to get infinte service life with proper maintenance. Obviously I shouldn't be using them for this application.
I'd use AM rims for DH if I could afford to replace rims if I crack a few.
As far as I know the main problem with using AM rims for DH at the moment is that they are too stiff and cause pinch flats. The risk of smashing the rim to death is still there- in my experience it seems to be a pretty small risk unless you are going pro-fast or you're not very good at riding...
Why are carbon rims so awesome?
In order:
-Stiffness
-Damping
-Weight
-Durability
We don't flat our XC rims. The plasticity of the rims means that the rim tends to "get out of the way" before you pinch.
Just like in road competitors are going to need to start thinking about their wheels as a whole separate investment than a bike. They cost just about as much as a frame and fork, but they're also equally important.
Don't try carbon wheels. It'll ruin you.
All of Enve's composite products are all significantly better in terms of strength and function than any other vendor. The fact that they are the only people to manufacture rims in North America is pretty important to me.
Anecdote:
I've been using the XC rims for slalom, dirthumping and the occasional day of hardtail DH at Highland as well as general xc and all-mountain style trail riding. This is the 3rd year. They just now need some retensioning. I'll have to pull the rim strip and spend 20 minutes spinning nipples...
Another friend of mine has 2 years of the same stuff plus 20+ XC races on his wheels.
Both of us are wheel smashers when we ride metal rims.
We should be running the AM rims because we've had a few tires pop off the rim due to stiffness. With the King hubs we're both running I expect to get infinte service life with proper maintenance. Obviously I shouldn't be using them for this application.
I'd use AM rims for DH if I could afford to replace rims if I crack a few.
As far as I know the main problem with using AM rims for DH at the moment is that they are too stiff and cause pinch flats. The risk of smashing the rim to death is still there- in my experience it seems to be a pretty small risk unless you are going pro-fast or you're not very good at riding...
Why are carbon rims so awesome?
In order:
-Stiffness
-Damping
-Weight
-Durability
We don't flat our XC rims. The plasticity of the rims means that the rim tends to "get out of the way" before you pinch.
Just like in road competitors are going to need to start thinking about their wheels as a whole separate investment than a bike. They cost just about as much as a frame and fork, but they're also equally important.
Don't try carbon wheels. It'll ruin you.
Considering Easton offers a no questions asked (ie. they will replace it even if you wheel fell under a bus) I doubt you have reasons to worry.
Interesting.
As a user of the non carbon 2011 Havoc's on my trail bike (as at 1750g they are pretty light anyway), sadly my experience has been dire.
No end of trouble with wheels going out of true, spokes loosening, play in the hubs & a crappy build from new. They are so bad, with a normal dish the spokes on the disk side are too long (down to the base of the thread) before you can tension the wheel properly, thus pulling it out of true, or having it dished to the drive side in order to tension it at a remotely sensible level.
They finally went back this week for a full refund. I figure I can build a set of DT 240's/Flow's up to a similar weight (if not, slightly less). I've been running similar on my DH bike forever now & they are still going strong with minor trueing. I've trued these stupid Easton wheels more times in the last 2 months than I have wheels in the last 5 years.
Shame. That will teach me to go with factory wheels without factory support. Stick to what I know from now on. At least I can build them up myself properly.
As a user of the non carbon 2011 Havoc's on my trail bike (as at 1750g they are pretty light anyway), sadly my experience has been dire.
No end of trouble with wheels going out of true, spokes loosening, play in the hubs & a crappy build from new. They are so bad, with a normal dish the spokes on the disk side are too long (down to the base of the thread) before you can tension the wheel properly, thus pulling it out of true, or having it dished to the drive side in order to tension it at a remotely sensible level.
They finally went back this week for a full refund. I figure I can build a set of DT 240's/Flow's up to a similar weight (if not, slightly less). I've been running similar on my DH bike forever now & they are still going strong with minor trueing. I've trued these stupid Easton wheels more times in the last 2 months than I have wheels in the last 5 years.
Shame. That will teach me to go with factory wheels without factory support. Stick to what I know from now on. At least I can build them up myself properly.
I saw a easton carbon rim shatter from heating being on a bike rack and the rim getting heat off the exhaust...they did warranty it though
I agree with 100% about easton backing its products,and I know they make fantastic wheels ( we stock them and some guys here use ec90sl's on their pina's ) Maybe this will be my first set of proprietary wheels.
We have a customer who is heavy on the brakes on his road bike,hes running 90SL's clinchers,and hes gone threw a few wheels,they warrenty them,but they even told us hey,tell him to get off the brakes,cause its just the design aspect of a carbon clincher heats up too much,specialy under heavy constant load
Is anyone on here actually an Engineer with Carbon Fiber technical experience and knowledge??
if so only listen to them. As i think everyone else is just speculating.
if so only listen to them. As i think everyone else is just speculating.
I have been riding those DT 1550 wheels and the feel in drifty corners is pretty sweet. I can't describe it but I really like the feel of the carbon wheels in a drift. They are stiff and hold their line but with some finesse? Hard to explain... I think it will probably be the future if they can get cost down and durability up. I am definitely curious.
But it will crack if you look at it wrong!!! Oh wait, I fly a mostly carbon-fiber airplane all the time...
I dont know if anyone cares to, but the whole MTB community seems to forget that Carob is very veyr bad for the Enviroment. the manufacturing of it is harmful. And then how do you recycle it.
Just putting my hippie bit in
Just putting my hippie bit in 
i would to would love to give a pair of the envy's a shot they are just superior to everything out there...
the cost is just so exponentially higher than a standard rim that it's tough to justify, im sure i'll own something similar at a point but not quite yet. Would love to lace these up to my i9's...ugh
the cost is just so exponentially higher than a standard rim that it's tough to justify, im sure i'll own something similar at a point but not quite yet. Would love to lace these up to my i9's...ugh
Does anyone have any more info on the release of these? I have searched and haven't come up with anything...I've just found, in local distributor 2012 catalogue Easton Havoc Carbon wheels.
The set weighs 1560g (claimed)! But the price will be very high, I am afraid.