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26in chinese carbon all mountain rim

337K views 2K replies 226 participants last post by  pb123hou 
#1 ·
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
 
#12 · (Edited)
read the article i linked about the testing they did, may be one you were talking aobut:

During the 2010 season, the Syndicate’s first on the carbon rims, they replaced 53 wheels, which was down from a reported 180 wheels per season when the team was on alloy. In 2011, the team had to replace just 11 wheels.

Of last season’s 11 broken wheels, not one lost air pressure or warranted their rider to slow before the finish line. “They were cracking hook beads,” said Schiers of the failures
 
#100 · (Edited)
They have arrived...........

OK, so the shipment finally made it from China to SFO and then here to Hawaii.

Pic1 - The box as I received it. It was actually shipped Express from SFO to Hawaii.

Pic2 - The box was damaged. BIG hole. Luckily it was in the middle so first impression the rims weren't damaged.

Pic3 - Sticker that says the box showed up here at local postal "In Damaged Condition".

Pic4 - As I open the box, the rims are packaged together with no buffer between the two. I inspected them and there isn't any damage between the two.

Pic5 - The rims look OK. Hard to get a feel for how they are really "bigger" and beefier than I thought. I guess I've been around "narrow" light weight rims for so long.

Pic6 - Looking down the inner cavity. If anyone wants me to make measurements of this, let me know.

Pic7 - Outside dimension.

Pic8 - Inner wall dimension.

Pic9 - Rim height. I actually measured this through the spoke hole to a flat surface but there wasn't a good way to get this picture so I just put my caliper here to illustrate.

Pic10 - 378 grams. Almost 40 grams heavier than what the spec says. Good enough for me though, much lighter than the rims I am using now. (Oh, Check that. The website now says 370g +/-10g. That's about right).

Oh, and they charged me $130ea plus $50 shipping. Not the listed $140/piece.

Sorry for all the edits. I will make ERD measurement later (don't have time right now) unless someone beats me to it.
 

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#104 ·
Pic10 - 378 grams. Almost 40 grams heavier than what the spec says. Good enough for me though, much lighter than the rims I am using now. (Oh, Check that. The website now says 370g +/-10g. That's about right).

Oh, and they charged me $130ea plus $50 shipping. Not the listed $140/piece.
those look nice, good pics

actually, they are listed at 370g+/-10g, so i'd say thats pretty good...you are thinking of the narrow rims, which it sounds like you paid for
 
#164 ·
OK, yet another step closer.

The wheel is trued up. The rim was easy to work with and came out quite nice with "even" spoke tension. There was only one interesting tid-bit. At least in a couple of places the material thickness of where the nipple passes through the rim is a bit thicker. In general, the material around the spoke holes is a bit thicker than typical al rims but standard nipples work fine.

The first picture shows one of the holes which is thicker.

Second picture shows "normal" thickness.

Third and fourth pictures self explanatory.
 

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#171 ·
OK, one more step closer.

Drilled the rim out for schrader, mounted a Maxxis High Roller 2.35. The tire aired up real easy and held without any leakage to speak of (ghetto tubeless).

Overall I am liking the whole set up. The tire is massive and sits nice and square on the rim. I've only taken it for rides up and down the street. Next step, get it out on some single track and see how well the combinations works.
 

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#178 ·
Got my first ride in on the wheel I built using the rim. The wheel rocks!! Set up ghetto tubeless using schrader valve and Maxxis High Roller tire. The tire seated immediately, no leaking or leak down or sealing issues. Out on the ride the bike hooks up and climbs awesome. No burping at all. Finally, a wide rim for the wide tires that I want to run for trail riding without the weight penalty. So far they are well worth it at killer price.

I say be patient, it's well worth the wait.

Aloha,
g
 
#391 ·
Gilbasa said:
Looks like an impact crack! was he running a low PSI?
Depends on your definition of "low". He was running 35 psi front and back.

ttengineer said:
Please do keep us updated. Depending on how light bicycles handles his case will push me one way or the other on buying a set of these rims. I do plan on buying the "beefier" version though.

It wouldnt be that big of a deal if he had ridden these for a year or more b/c the price is so low, but only after one ride I have to admit I am eager to hear how this turns out.
Exactly my thoughts as well. Simply just too short of a time (5 rides) for this to happen. Will post back when he gets an update.

Simplemind said:
This causes a lot of concern for my riding as well. These are the first "catastrophic" riding failures (not over pressurized) I've seen posted here as well. Definately cause for concern, however these look to be direct hits that you would get in hitting something like a square edge rock ledge. I'm assuming he had NO pinch flats???
I wouldn't call it catastrophic, as he rode out just fine. He didn't even notice the cracks until he was cleaning his bike. He had zero pinch flats while riding. The trails do have sections of rocky terrain with square edged rocks, that I'd easily say falls under the category of "all mountain" riding. Anyone else who's familiar with the trails can chime in.

David C said:
I also feel like those are more a result of direct impact rather than fatigue. You also said he was doing AM riding, but shuttle trip or lift ? Sounds more like mini DH to me.
We shuttled to the top of each trail head. There's a lift resort nearby, but these are the local trails in the area, and not the ski resort. At 11,000' elevation, we opted for shuttling them by vehicles. Even with the shuttle, there are climbing sections throughout, just with net down.
 
#450 ·
OK, so here's a follow up. My original post (#9) when I received the rims was 11 April 2012. I assembled the wheel (only the rear as I am running 650b front) and rode it for a few rides before packing the bike up and departing on my annual mountain bike trip. This year was one week in Steamboat Springs and one week in Crested Butte. I have to say the wheel has performed great. Still in true, nice and stiff. A few scratches here and there from all the rocks but I think these rims are well worth the money.

Here's just one picture from the Upper Loop Crested Butte.
 

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#601 ·
You could also use glycerin and water mix, there is talk about it on the home brew sealant thread being very slippery and helping the bead to seat at a much lower pressure.

My 3k 26er wider rims have been dispatched so hoping I don't have as bad a problem getting them seated once built up and ready to ride.

I'm planning on building these wheels myself and it will be my first ever build, which seems to be the same as a lot of other folk. I find it strange that a lot of people are choosing to do their first ever build with these carbon rims when they are actually more expensive than the normal alloy rims most people are used to using.
 
#1,165 ·
Continental tires work great. The only problem with them is they generally are kind of flobbery (they like to remember their folded up shape but they are very round and true tires after they get mounted) so if you mount them with a tube and let them sit a day you will then be able to mount them tubeless super easily. Floor pump easy, compressor with no soapy water or anything, will air up instantly dry and mount.

Schwable tires are a little too tight for these rims but I got them to work by mounting them to some old DT Swiss rims with tubes to stretch the bead out and then it was much much easier to mount to these rims. Still worse than the contis though.
 
#1,504 · (Edited)
1306g - Light Bicycle 26" 32h new All Mountain wheelset build


204.6g dt swiss 190 32h cl rear hub


109g dt swiss 190 32h cl front hub


14.3g - Sapim Super CX-Ray 252mm x4

14.8g - Sapim Super CX-Ray 254mm x4

1.4g - Wheelbuilder 1.8 14mm nips x4





369g - Light Bicycle 26" 32h new All Mountain rim




366g - Light Bicycle 26" 32h new All Mountain rim

....Rear Wheel....
Hub: 135mm DT Swiss 190 Ceramic CL 32h black - 205g
Rim: LB AM 26" 32h black - 369g
Spokes : Sapim Super CX-Ray black + Wheelbuilder 14mm 1.8 nips - 129g
WEIGHT: 703g



703g rear wheel

....Front Wheel....
Hub: 100mm DT Swiss 190 Ceramic 32h CL - 108g
Rim: LB AM 26" 32h black - 366g
Spokes: Sapim Super CX-Ray black + Wheelbuilder 14mm 1.8 nips - 129g
WEIGHT: 603g



603g front wheel

will put tyres on them tomorrow - very happy so far :)

massive thanks to Benny & Jon @ Wheelbuilder, Chris @ Starbike & Kartrin Li @ Light Bicycles

best
alex
 
#1,506 ·

204.6g dt swiss 190 32h cl rear hub


109g dt swiss 190 32h cl front hub


14.3g - Sapim Super CX-Ray 252mm x4

14.8g - Sapim Super CX-Ray 254mm x4





369g - Light Bicycle 26" 32h new All Mountain rims




366g - Light Bicycle 26" 32h new All Mountain rims

....Rear Wheel....
Hub: 135mm DT Swiss 190 Ceramic CL 32h black - 205g
Rim: LB AM 26" 32h black - 369g
Spokes : Sapim Super CX-Ray black + Wheelbuilder 14mm 1.8 nips - 129g
WEIGHT: 703g



703g rear wheel

....Front Wheel....
Hub: 100mm DT Swiss 190 Ceramic 32h CL - 108g
Rim: LB AM 26" 32h black - 366g
Spokes: Sapim Super CX-Ray black + Wheelbuilder 14mm 1.8 nips - 129g
WEIGHT: 603g



603g front wheel

will put tyres on them tomorrow - very happy so far :)

massive thanks to Benny & Jon @ Wheelbuilder, Chris @ Starbike & Kartrin Li @ Light Bicycles

best
alex
Nice set of wheels. Any place that i could order something like these but for 29er? Been searching but can only find overseas, meaning china but they are using different hub brand.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
 
#1,505 ·
Nice Alex. Excellent weight.

Look forward to the ride report, particularly how those super thin spokes go combined with stiff carbon rims. I think a German DH champ was using superspokes on his downhill wheels at one stage, so the lightweight spokes and stiff rims might be a winning combo. What bike are these going on?
 
#1,507 · (Edited)
thank you

had been wondering about tension wind-up with those new(ish) super cx-ray's, but have a couple of wheels with the non-bladed version super spokes without any probs at all for a few years - went 32h + Wheelbuilder super strength nips just incase with these unknown LB rims

going on this bike


will be tubeless with 25mm stans tape & new formula sealant + RoRo EVO 26x2.25 or X-King Protection 26x2.4 depending on season & trail conditions

best
alex
 
#1,615 ·
Only the deep section DH rims can be done without internal nipple holes. All the other LB rims including their newest, widest model don't have enough internal vertical room. If you do the non-drilled style I recommend the derailleur cable method that I outlined previously in this thread.
 
#1,730 · (Edited)
My new 38's:cornut: 1630g for the pair, (without tires of course). Nice and wide, looks like MX tires on them.
 

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#2 ·
Well the company that everybody is buying the wheels from in the 29er thread also makes 26er carbon rims as well.

26er MTB carbon MTB rim clincher - light-bicycle

That is the regular 24mm wide 26er. They are also in the process of producing a wider 26er that will come in at 30mm wide (external), 23mm wide (internal), and 23mm depth...which is wider than the ZTR Flow. Not sure on the weight of the wider rim since I'm still waiting for a reply from Nancy.
 
#15 ·
That profile doesn't look like it'll be tubeless compatible at all. The profile looks exactly like their current narrow 26 rim profile and the current rim is not tubeless compatible according to Nancy when I inquired about them.
I hope they make the profile like the wider 29er rim.
 
#8 ·
Impossible to tell, as these are not in production yet. However given that a Mavic 823 weighs over 600g, it's a bit hard to imagine that a sub 400 carbon rim is intended to compete in that usage category.

Check the 20 page thread in the 29er section for some short term ride reports.
 
#9 ·
Yeah, I have been, I actually want to build up a set of normal 29er rims for my 29ers

But currently I am planning to build a set of DH rims with Stans Flow or DT swiss 500, so I wonder if these would work. The real question is what would happen if you hit something hard enough that would normally dent a aluminum rim.
 
#10 ·
well, pound for pound, properly laid up carbon will be stronger than aluminum in pretty much all aspects, too many variables here to know though if these will adhere to that, i dont think id risk it on DH as the risk far outweighs the reward...light-bikes can build the rims up beefier for heavier riders upon request, so that might be an option if you are brave
enve has a DH rim coming out soon that has been quite durable in testing, much moreso than aluminum DH rims and weighs in around 475g...they will assuredly be better than these chinese rims, at a major cost penalty
Enve DH
 
#11 ·
I have seen Enve rims fail. One rim that a pro DH rider was using broke, with the bead hook chipped off. An AL rim would have bent at that spot. Granted, this was at Bootleg, so not too many rims last there.

Enve DH's are $1000 per rim. It's a joke.

For DH, if you are going to use light rims, you are better off using something cheaper like Flow and replacing it every season or more.
 
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