Real Design - Ultrasonic 40 Wheels - Experiences?

"bikeguy11968" wrote in message
ups.com...

Being a former litespeed retailer, I have the following advice. Take
them, they are free. SEll them to some un suspecting idiot on ebay for
400$, and get your self a pair of cheap ksyrriums, or even open pro
ultegras with the loot. The wheels look almost cool, but I personally
found them to be seriously lacking in build quality, and overall
quality. The cheesy carbon is only a fairing. It's glued onto a
velocity (????) rim. Poorly at that. They are heavy, not really nice to
ride, and frankly not worth half of what litespeed pretends they are.


"The cheesy carbon is only a fairing. It's glued ..."

Probably good advice, but couldn't any carbon aero rim that is a clincher be
described that way? I'm no expert, but the clinchers I've seen all use
aluminum in which case it has to be "glued" to the carbon. I guess the
question is whether the glued carbon is structural (radially; laterally).
Also from your description it sounds like these wheels are similar to the
Mavic Cosmic Carbones in that they have the spokes pass through the inner
edge of the rim and perhaps have the nipples seated in the aluminum as
opposed to the Zipps which have the nips near the inner edge requiring more
than a thin "fairing". I wonder which design could make the better wheel.

--Art

Zipp carbon clinchers are actually made of structural carbon (at risk
of abuse from engineers on list). The spoke nipples actually engage
carbon for better or worse, and they are a rigid one peice structure.
The crappy reals plug into the aluminum rims in a Reynolds like
fashion.. nipples are completely hidden. The carbon v is a super
cheesy flimsy bend it with your pinkie finger fairing. nothing more. I
guess you get what you pay for, but for 2005 litespeed decided to sell
them as wheelsets through the dealers. They are asking TOP dollar,
like 1200 or 1500 a pair.. With the excuse "well, that's what
zipp/reynolds get".. except those wheels don't suck. They are light.
They are well made, well finished top quality products. I think they
just jacked the price in an attempt to gain high end accountability.