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I've been wondering about replacing my trusty On-One Codeine with a fancy blingy new bike.
The trouble is, it's just so good, it's hard to imagine that spending all that money would make much real world difference.
So, having saved myself thousands of pounds by not buying some carbon fibre superbike, I can now afford some better wheels.
Do carbon wheels make a noticeable difference on a FS, or should I spend the money on beer? On my road bike they are amazeballs.
Or is carbon evil, and I should be get some nice springy steel-rimmed wheels?
Ran some enve ams on my 26r yeti fs. Amazing stiffness. Expensive when they crack. I’m back on alloys till I can afford to replace!
When I got mine light bicycles were a lot cheaper, and I'm very happy with them at the price. But I think alu rims have got better and the cheap good carbon has turned into midpriced good carbon. I'd really struggle to justify it now just on price. Truth is, when the cheap carbon really started to take off, alu rims had stood still for years, Stans were pretty much the only interesting thing and mavic were still trying to sell 819s. Now everyone's got great options.
(Mine are built with lasers so the wheels aren't especially stiff, I've never seen that as really an advantage. But they are silly light, for something that's done uplift days, enduro racing, and I think now about 4 years of general dicking about in beasty long travel bikes. I could build an alu wheelset as light, but I wouldn't expect it to last a year. YMMV, Hobnob frinstance has had almost completely the opposite experience in what's probably pretty similar use)
PS, I'm still not convinced lighter wheels make me faster. But they feel nice and that makes me ride faster.
I had light bicycle carbo rims on my enduro bike. They were awsome, on the hardtail I ran them on I hated it.
I really want a carbon pair for my new remedy but the price is stupid now compared to the xm481 I run.
Absolutely love my Blue Flows,superb product for the price.
3 weeks ago I treated myself to a pair of Santa Cruz Reserve 27mm (internal diameter) carbon wheels, replacing my Hope Tech Enduro wheels. The weight difference was about 300g, but the handling difference (the main reason for the swap) is incredible. They seem to soak up a lot more bumps and I feel more confident going faster. Lifetime warranty and 48 hour replacement time, in case they break. Haven't looked back!
Just got a second pair of sixth element , they are quality on my chameleon and decided to get the, for full sus..
Didn’t like the feel first ride, then you get used to them and wow
I’ve had hope enduro and they are so so narrow any wheels with a wider internal would feel better :0)
I got the cheapest Nextie ones then available for my 29" FS bike, which were the asymmetric ones. I may be imagining it, but I seemed to find it easier to keep the bike on really narrow trails, eg when trying to follow a switchbacking rut down a steep wooded hillside. That is compared to ?mark 2 Stans Arches. So possibly the stiffness was an asset there.
I would go for carbon an an FS. I got Nextie Alligators on my hardtail for the 27.5 plus wheels, they are more sophisticated looking and expensive. They do feel a bit unforgiving vertically, difficult to say with semi-skimmed tyres though. Not sure I would go carbon for a new set of 29" wheels for normal width tyres which I need, in fact I am currently dithering over what to do there. As folk have said, ali rims have come on in recent years.
Given how good aluminium rims are now, no - not worth it. As aforementioned, my experience of carbon wheels from a reliability perspective hasn't been good (there's a big graveyard of broken rims behind my shed of pretty much every single make).
But, for racing gravity stuff, and riding with a bias to that genre, I also don't like the feel of them. Overly stiff and harsh, made the ride feel choppy & harder to hold a line with.
So it's a no from me. My XM481's have seen more action than probably the last 3 sets of carbon rims I broke. They are battle scared, but still straight & true. Been very impressed with them. As light or lighter than most carbon wheelsets too (comparable use) 🙂
I rode my bike up a kerb the other day, forgetting how little air there was in the rear tyre. The noise the wheel made cut through to the depths of my wallet soul. Then I remembered that Danny MacAskill rode up a whole set of stairs on his, and an that didn’t break them so I stopped worrying. 😊
I wouldn’t buy any that were Enve money again (especially after the recent issues) but between those and the Chinese ones there are some mega ones that are silly light, not too stiff with a great warranty. DT Swiss & Santa Cruz ones, for example.
All those saying not worth it over alloy, I agree with them. When Light Bicycle rims were about £120 each they were great but the price has gone way up (partly thanks to exchange rates) alongside wider alloy rims at a comparable weight and strength coming along.
i always wondered about megabucks carbon like those Enve with the protective liner but I will never get to try those and the Pink Bike review was disappointingly bad