On Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 7:12:31 AM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 12/4/2018 4:29 PM, wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 2:12:48 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 3:51:30 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 6:05:02 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I previously bought a set of 50 mm deep Carbon Fiber rims. These were clinchers and were 23 mm wide on the brake surfaces. These have performed faultlessly.

But I didn't want to have to carry around all of the 2 lbs of flat repair stuff - the Topeak bag, multitool, two spare tubes, two CO2 cartridges and the tool to use them and a patch kit ifneeded.

So I decided to go to tubeless as I have successfully used on Campy and Fulcrum aluminum wheelsets. They were selling the 25 mm wide tubeless wheelsets nearly as cheaply as the clincher rims.

I bought a set and they arrived. I also wanted to try 28 mm tires on my Colnago so I was mounting a set of Michelin Pro4 Endurance tires like I had used on my Pinarello Stelvio. The front appeared to mount and hold air as normal for a new mount. Usually it takes a couple of days for all of the small leaks around the sidewalls to seal. You just pump it up until it hold air pretty well and then go for a ride and that jiggles everything into place and you don't have to worry about flats again.

When I was inflating the rear tire and inflating it, there was a loud POP! and I put the wheel into the wheelstand and it was an inch out of true. I assumed this was from delamination but as the wheel was spinning in the stand the air was draining out of it and it came back into true. I pulled the tire off and looked carefully at the entire rim but couldn't see anything. I contacted the seller on Ebay and they sent me a rim which I've covered elsewhere.

In any case I ordered a second wheelset from another manufacturer. They came in pretty fast so they must have gotten to the boat just as it was leaving.

I discovered with the apparently good front wheel that there's insufficient room on the CLX 3.0 to use 28 mm tires. Conveniently Vittoria just released the Corsa Speed tubeless tires so I ordered a set from ProBikeKit. It took a month to get here so it was just a couple of days ago I tried putting them on. I had a lot of problems getting them to push up onto the step that all tubeless rims have. In fact I used up 5 CO2 cartridges without getting one properly mounted. So I had to order another lifetime supply. I expected them to arrive in another week but they were here this morning!

I mounted the new tires and inflated them and they didn't fill properly still. They were spraying the sealant all over the place. Finally they seemed to mount properly. The air pressure was low from all of the leakage getting them on properly. so I stuck a pump on and started pumping them up at around 65 psi they started TICing and when I got to 80 PSI they exploded loudly and the way the tire felt I thought that it had broken the bead. I tried the other wheel and it did the same thing. When the pressure got to 70 psi or so it began making funny noises and at 80 psi BANG!

I called Vittoria America up and gave them a piece of my mind and they were the nicest people in the world and just gave me a return ID and said that they would replace them.

So I went through the process of taking them off with all of that sealant inside. I got them off and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the tires. So I rubbed by fingers along the top of the rims and one was delaminated for about 10 inches while the other was delaminated a third of the way around the one side of the rim. I kept the wheel box but I cannot return them through Ebay until I communicate with the seller.

Now the tube bed on the clincher wheels is completely different than that of the tubeless so I don't expect any trouble with them. But what is important to note is that probably all 50 mm deep carbon rims are made by the same manufacturer. This makes them all suspect no matter whose decal is on the rims.

If you want the advantages of a good aero section that you can get from carbon 50 mm wheels you should think more about a clincher set. These have more re-enforcement around the brake area.

Buying ANYTHING CARBON from a unknown Chinese builder is a crap shoot at best and possible life threatening at worst. I can't believe the number of people who risk their limbs and health on cheap often shoddily built Chinese knockoffs/pirated copies of bicycles or bicycle components. The adage, "If the price looks to be too low to be good" then it probably is.

Cheers

Tell you what, you use your money your way and I'll use mine my way.

That was rude. What I've been saying is that my Chinese $250 carbon wheels so far outperform my $800 Campy aero al wheels that there is no contest.. You can hardly hold the Campy wheels on the road in side gusts whereas you can barely tell side gusts with the other. The hub bearings spin so freely that I can
flip the wheel and come back 5 minutes later and it is still turning. Does that sound as if my investment was too good to be true?


If you ring up Mr Campagnolo and suggest that he merely buy
his wheels from the same place you did, he might split the
savings with you. Or not.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

The clinchers are built almost exactly like a tubular rim with a bead lock on both sides.

Would you find a tubular carbon rim to be dangerous? If not why would you find a pure clincher made in the same manner as dangerous?

Why do you suppose that the industry has backtracked on pure carbon tubeless wheels? Do you suppose they did that for the looks?

I have used my Campy Siroccos for a year and the brake surface is worn below the limit markers. Do you think that is because aluminum braking surfaces are all that great?

It's my opinion that like everything else in this world, new technology always brings a learning curve. I do not hear of new carbon frame breaking anymore. And I haven't seen a broken new-style carbon fork. The handling of my Colnago is something I wouldn't have believed possible before. I'm really fast downhill. But with the Colnago it's just like riding on a straight road.

The combination of highly ridged frame, fork and wheels puts all of the cornering forces on the tires which have a limited amount of motion and it REALLY makes a difference.