I really enjoy the 29er chinese carbon rim thread but l didnt see anything for all mountain chinese wheels or rims. I'm looking for some 26in carbon all mountain rims that need to be wide, pretty light and strong to go on my Tracer2. Going through all the Asian carbon stores is big undertaking. That, and l dont fully understand everything about wheels. Are all the rims pretty much for xc if not can someone point me in the right direction
I been emailing back and forth with Nancy about customizing my wheelset and she came up to me with the new DH rims being a lot stronger because of the new processing and somehow I decided to try something.
I made her an offer for a wheelset with the D881/882 hubs, two DH rims with internal drilling, the spokes and black brass nipples, plus two bottle cages, but not build up, which means I'll be lacing them myself and all they have to do is put a bag of spokes and nipples in the box with the rims and hubs, and for a price just under what they are asking for a complete built wheelset with the DH rims.
I'm happy because that means I won't top-out my budget of $700 for this (after including shipping and paypal fees, I get right on the edge of $700), and also I will be able to customize some spokes before lacing the wheel. I am thinking of having either all spokes or only the group that sits around the valve hole being "plated" with a black chrome finish or some other electro-process, not sure yet what's available and affordable. And then I can get some gold brass nipples to use black on drive side and gold on disc side. If I had the money, I'd get 2-3 spokes per wheel plated gold just for the heck of it haha
From my understanding, it takes about a week or so to get your stuff in the US/Canada once they ship it ? I'm going back home next month, so I'm not sure yet if I can ask them to wait a few weeks before shipping or if I should get them here (USA) right away... I'd rather not have the rims sitting around in my room for a month though.
Someone said something about using some sort of oil as a spoke prep to help everything go smooth when tensioning. Since I'm suppose to go with the internal nipples now, how does oily nipples do when trying to fish them around and hold them tight ?
I'm currently checking to have some spokes plated with black chrome finish too. We shall see
If it's too expensive for what it is, other option is to do it in-house. I have a blast cabinet and air-brush paint gun, so then I can do a few spokes whatever color I want, even glow-in-the-dark haha. I'll probably do it gold or electric blue. Although purple is pretty cool, but I don't see purple being a good combination with a carbon wave. I'd like to color the group of spokes around the valve hole, so 2-3 spokes per wheel. Blasting, a few coat of paint, then cooking up 15 minutes at 400°F and it's quite durable. I even made a "XTR" crank in gold and pimp purple a while back.
A quick estimation based on the component specs for my build show the wheelset at 1 753g final, 764f and 989r.
Using Novatec D881/D882 hubs (211g/436g), 2 DH rims at 385g each, 64 spokes at 4.3g each, 64 brass nipples at 60g total.
Cost of the wheelset with shipping and fees is $670, so pretty decent for a XC to DH ready carbon wheelset (hubs can be converted to any existing axle standard, except 150mm rear).
After a day of racing and training runs they're still perfect and the light weight was much appreciated on today's pedally course. I already had the hubs, pay wholesale for parts, and buit them myself but it looks like they'd retail for about $1200+ labor. I wouldn't want to pay someone to do the blind lacing cuz it took 4 hours to build.
I could get the DT 240 wholesale too, but even there that's just an awful lot of money for my budget. Same for the Aerolite spokes and nipples. A figured that I'll start with something more universal because I don't know yet how my bikes collection will evolve and at some point I will simply build specific wheelset for each of the bikes in a few years.
Sorry, no pics for now, they should start manufacturing my rims this week.
Btw, what term did you used with Nancy when talking about the inside drilling for these rims to make sure they were not gonna be messed up on the drilling specifications ? I told her to drill only from the inside, not trough the rim bed. I'm still concerned there could be a misunderstanding with having the blind lacing drilling setup just like yours and that I get a bad surprise when I open the box.
Got my DH rims on Friday. Both come in at 33 x 30. Haven't measured ERD yet (I don't have any spokes laying around, so I'll need to figure out another way).
Good quality work IMHO. Fit and finish are very nice. I took some pics, but I don't use site hosts so I can't post them up, sorry (if you PM me and send me your email address I can send them out that way). I'm quite happy with them thus far, and quite anxious to get my measurements done so I can start ordering spokes and nipples and get them built up.
@above: I also have no holes drilled on rim bed. That's all you gotta say, "don't drill holes on the rim bed, only the nipple holes."
Got my DH rims on Friday. Both come in at 33 x 30. Haven't measured ERD yet (I don't have any spokes laying around, so I'll need to figure out another way).
Good quality work IMHO. Fit and finish are very nice. I took some pics, but I don't use site hosts so I can't post them up, sorry (if you PM me and send me your email address I can send them out that way). I'm quite happy with them thus far, and quite anxious to get my measurements done so I can start ordering spokes and nipples and get them built up.
@above: I also have no holes drilled on rim bed. That's all you gotta say, "don't drill holes on the rim bed, only the nipple holes."
So I just ordered a pair w/o the holes in the bed and was just thinking how do you do the nipples? Is it a special type of nipple that expands or something? I saw that you needed 12mm nipples but how do you get them in the rim?
It took only 9 days for my 650b's to get all the way from Guanzhou to Mex, fast enough for me! So, my guess is that it will take less to get to the States.
I'm just hopping it won't get stuck at the customs, that would stink since I might not be there in a month haha
Now I'm getting excited I'm finally gonna them in only a few days, I've been waiting over a year for this wheelset and it's thrilling to see it all come together
33mm wide carbon rims on a XC bike is probably something that never has been done so far too. Looking forward to running them this winter too with very low pressure.
has anyone gotten the new wider spec rims in 35mm wide in the heavier reinforced version? or has these not been produced yet and just being preordered?
They are not making the 35mm version. That was their original intention when they announced on the site to make a DH rim, but overwhelming response was to make a 33x30, so that's what they put into production. At least that's my understanding....
Are 14mm nipples gonna work with the new DH rims for blind lacing ? Thats all they have in black brass and I'd like to know if I need to order some 12mm ones from somewhere else instead.
They probably fit but it's gonna make it a little harder to flip the nipple up and have it slide down into the hole. I used shift cable because it has a little more stiffness than fishing line for pushing around. However, that makes it form a bend above the nipple as you're flipping it and that bend will bump into the rim bed. Maybe enough to make it difficult to get the nipple to fall through, maybe not. Regardless, 14mm brass nips are gonna be heavy.
Thanks, I think I'll end up ordering 12mm ones too, probably DT.
I got the invoice this morning, have to wait till lunch time when I'm back from work to pay. I'm pretty excited about this and I have to say Nancy did a very nice job on the invoice, everything look perfect, down to name of the guy who's gonna mold the carbon and 3 of his cousins
I hope it stays that way. Those rims are gonna be huge, I can't imagine how stiff the wheel will be with 30mm of rim height. You guys are lucky to be already riding these haha
Definitely not just for XC. I've been racing Pro Enduro for 8 months on a set of their AM rims (including a top 30 at a World Enduro round) and Pro DH for 1 week on the DH width rims
Here's my DH wheelset:
Well I just ordered the only 12mm gold brass nipples available on the whole Internet that are actually color-coated, not painted, at $17 for 75pcs. And it's gonna take a freaking month or more to get them delivered from Taiwan, so not before mid-September. Meanwhile I'll get some black ones, 12mm at wholesale from my bike shop job. Little bummer as I won't be able to get this wheelset on the bike till I get the gold nipples, but at least I'll get to put it together with the black nipples meanwhile to double-check the spoke lengths they sent me and if all the rims are alright and no issue.
Who else has found 12mm gold brass nipples, 14g, for their built here ?
There's very little demand for coloured brass nips. I haven't built a wheelset with brass nips in over 14 years. People that want the bling factor will go for alu anodized and you get the weight savings as a bonus. If the spokes engage the nipple heads properly (ie. you've got the spoke length calcs right) then an alu nipple will be stronger than any spoke you use. Being anodized you should not have any corrosion issues.
Personally, I always go for plain alu nipples. They sometimes come with the spokes or I buy the dt swiss 12mm versions in boxes of 100. Colour is not performance enhancing.
Just curious for those of you using these new DH rims. Any experience with various tires setting up tubeless? What is working well? Are there tires that are not working well?
^The rims have a proper channel and shoulder profile so they should work well tubeless with any tire. I've been using 2.7" Minions. Inflation was near instant with the valve core removed using a compressor.
Thanks, I only ask as some tires can be "looser" than others. IMHO, achieving a good tubeless setup can vary, and require sometimes multiple rolls of tape, or rim strips to get a good seal. Just trying to get an idea of what tires work without adding a bunch of **** to the rim.
Lelandjt, the reason I ask is because I'm about to build a light wheelset with LB rims and I'm somehow concerned about the corrosion issues shown with others (Enve).
So, no galvanic corrosion on your builds? Even using the "satanized" alloy nips?
Also, forgive mi for hi-jacking the thread, since this is not about carbon AM rim.
That's also why I went the brass way for mines. I don't want to find out on my own if galvanic corrosion will happen or not on my rims.
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