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Fancy picking up some carbon rims to re build my wheels onto as current rims need replacing.
However the LBs seem to have gone up in price a lot, don’t want to go down the unknown Ali express / risky cheap Chinese route, but it’s been a while and thought it’s worth asking if there’s other options worth considering?
Not paying much more than LB costs as they are at least a known quantity with a reasonable rep for CS.
Nextie have been around a while. I've built two sets of wheels with their rims and they seem to work. Prices similar.
I found lightbicycle rims to be far too stiff, there are far better options available for not much more.
Stand rims are nice, sixth element ok, those weareone rims are nice too
haven't tried nextie tbf
I've been on LB rims for both my bikes since 2014. And broken 3 since then. Replacements aren't as cheap any more, so I've just put mk 3 flows on one bike and kept the carbons as spare for the big bike.
Stiffness - depends on the rim IMO. lB have a really good comparison tool where you can compare lateral and vertical stiffness and strength.
Personally , in 30mm IW, 29er guise I found them a bit stiffer for acceleration, but not especially harsh.
That said, compared to 2014, there are loads of decent wide ALU rims now. I'm very impressed with the MK3 stans rim. It gives a better tyre profile than my LB rims, but they do still weigh 85g more each than my carbons.
I can't say I notice any harshness etc with my LB rims compared to my alu wheels. But tbh the price rise since I got mine is what'd make me think long before buying more. The actual product is ime absolutely superb, as was the customer service when I broke one, out of warranty, while doing something that was just plain more than it was designed for.
Love my LB rims over 5 years old now.
I really liked the fact that they will make specials. I had my rims with a sealed rum bed, so no need for tubeless tape. But more involved to build but much quicker/easier to swap tyres.
Onzadog, liking the sound of your sealed <span style="text-decoration: underline;">rum</span>, ummm.
Seriously what spokes and nipples did you use when you don't have a hole in the rim bed?
Likewise, might tempt me to spend the extra one ex11's to get a sealed rim bed....
how did you build them up, what did you do re-nipples/spokes?
just awkwardly post standard nipples through the value hole and shake them round till them came out the right way from the right holes? must have been easier than that right?
Nylon thread - bit of spoke thread - magnet.
Tie 10mm of spoke thread to nylon and drop it in through the spoke hole. Use the magnet to draw it around to the valve hole. Thread on nipple and pull back.
Best to start opposite the valve hole so you're not pulling past existing spokes. Did it while watching a film or something on the telly. Quite relaxing really.
great stuff, and worth considering, unfortunately it looks about £500 for 2 rims at the moment, seems very steep....
just going to have to try to decide if its worth it over about £150 for a pair of DT Swiss's
i can help, it's not worth it.
🙂
Of course it's not worth it. However, if you want it and can afford it...
...still half the price of Santa Cruz rims and they don't offer the sealed rim bed.
Please tell me the advantage of a sealed rim bed
I can only see disadvantages.
Infinitely more time consuming to build the wheel. Even after you locate all of the nipples in there you then have to tighten them all up with the spoke key instead of a screwdriver. Must be a right faff when you break a spoke.
And I cant even see how its lighter - surely 32 small circles of carbon weigh more than a bit of Stan's tape?
Or have I missed something?
I've had wheels with a sealed bed, never again. Solution for a problem that doesn't exist
That Nextie website seems pretty similar to a lot on AliExpress / Alibaba!
I got a set of 30mm Asymmetric 29er rims at the start of the year from AliExpress (Velosa), built up fine and ran then up to now, now changed bikes and just built up another set with some 35mm rims, I'm pretty light on stuff so happy to take a chance with them.