On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/

I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search.

I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor.

-- Jay Beattie.
Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information.