[Closed] light bicycle carbon rims

They warrantied mine after the bead hook came off - took a couple of weeks to sort out and then another couple of weeks for the replacement to arrive. That looks like it's had a belt on a pointy rock though so not sure you'll have much luck... That's the thing with carbon rims - what would have dented a metal rim trashes a carbon one.

Acid - hooked or hookless?

well i've just bought two of the remaining three 38mm hookless rims on ebay, so only one left until LB can list more next month. Total cost inc shipping £282 n change, so praying i dodge import duty etc otherwise it'll be more like £150 per rim!

When I ordered mine, I expected to pay the import duty, and still considered it a bloody good price for what I am getting. When they were dispatched, LB sent an email saying they had put 150 usd as the value. But German customs aren't that stupid and you have to email a receipt to them.

otherwise it'll be more like £150 per rim!

Should be closer to £175 per rim

LB sent an email saying they had put 150 usd as the value.

just had the same regarding 45mm u-shaped road rims

Should be closer to £175 per rim

£70 in duty and charges? I hope not 🙂

EDIT- German customs? are you living there?

£70 in duty and charges? I hope not

When you add on the customs handling fee from Parcelforce it will be more like £85 in fees I am afraid!

When you add on the customs handling fee from Parcelforce it will be more like £85 in fees I am afraid!

I could have got them shipped to jersey and got a flight there to pick them up 🙂

i'll be riding like a ballerina on these, they [s]had better[/s] will last forever!

Import duty added the total price and shipping, then vat added onto the new total. Plus handling fees. I would expect it to come to about 25%

EDIT- German customs? are you living there?

Yep

yeah, just been doing a bit of reading on the parcelforce fees etc. Odd how some people have avoided duty etc, just the luck of the draw i guess. We'll see what i get hit with when i get the bill.

I'm curious why people expect LB to warranty damaged rims. If you dented a stan's or a mavic whilst riding, you wouldn't expect them to replace it for you, you'd go and buy a replacement.

Just for balance I've had an eBay frame and LB rims delivered without the customs fees. It's all down to luck!

I'm curious why people expect LB to warranty damaged rims. If you dented a stan's or a mavic whilst riding, you wouldn't expect them to replace it for you, you'd go and buy a replacement.

I think it comes down to if you have done something that you would expect could cause that damage, ie do you believe they performed in an expected manner. If I had a set of stans rims collapse on me after a bit of light xc when a couple of weeks old, I would probably suspect a manufacturing fault.

Got to say though I have been thinking about buying a third rim as a spare, even if I kill one myself, it seems about a month turnaround to get a replacement, with holidays in the alps planned, having a spare rim might be more sensible than having to buy a new mismatched wheel.

Just for balance I've had an eBay frame and LB rims delivered without the customs fees. It's all down to luck!

Through parcelforce i assume?

I don't think people are expecting LB to automatically warranty a damaged rim but they do have a 1 year warranty which they tend to honour without question, and they have also been known to replace damaged rims that were outside the warranty period so there's certainly no harm in asking.

Scienceofficer - Member
Acid - hooked or hookless?

bigjim - Member
I'm curious why people expect LB to warranty damaged rims. If you dented a stan's or a mavic whilst riding, you wouldn't expect them to replace it for you, you'd go and buy a replacement.

I don't remember writing that I expect a warranty replacement? But I'd say some gesture of good will is required. I was riding it as advertised for the intended use. I haven't been racing DH or crashing three meter drops. I didn't had a problem with my old cheap alloy rims riding the same style.

Ideally I'd prefer to upgrade (at a cost) from my current broken 35mm rim to the new 38mm if they're meant to be significantly stronger.

How accurate have people found the claimed ERD to be on these rims?

How accurate have people found the claimed ERD to be on these rims?

I ordered spokes based on the claimed ERD and hub measurements in the manual on my (American Classic) hubs, and all the spokes were too short, by 2-3mm. Not measured to check where the fault lay, but I'd suggest they may not be!

gee - Member

That's the thing with carbon rims - what would have dented a metal rim trashes a carbon one.

So far my experience is that what would have dented a metal rim barely leaves a mark on my carbons. A year on the back of my ragley left the original alu rim absolutely haggard but the lighter LB one with minor scratches (and that was the older, weaker version)

I will of course emo-rage if I ever do break one.

Northwind +1.

I have only one experience since shifting onto these LB rims. I received 4 snakebite cuts to a 29er Hans dampf from a single rockstrike on the MacMillan way in last years Exmoor gravity enduro. They were fairly large at about 5-7mm each and took ages to fill with 'chovies. Anyway, I couldn't even see where the rim had cut in. No obvious marks, dents or scratches.

People don't seem to understand that carbon rims don't behave like metal. What will break a carbon rim would have made an alu rim an unrecoverable egg shaped mess anyway. Anything below that level of force doesn't do much to carbon, whereas on alu, it will accumulate all the small knocks, dents scrapes and deformations that we're all familiar with.

For anyone interested I've been working on a Rim tape solution for our new carbon wheels and have found a really good gorilla tape replacement were now buying in - 25mm wide but really good for 30mm+ rims, leaves much less mess than gorilla if you need to remove it and bonds well with the carbon surface for a good seal first time. Will be available from our store (shop.birdmtb.com) next week.

Has anyone got/ordered the 29er 50mm rims?
I'm tied between Light Bicycle and the Nextie Jungle Fox.

An update for my 650B 35mm rim which broken within three months of use...

LB are giving me a replacement to the new 38mm (and I'm purchasing another so I have a matching pair and a spare 35mm).

Does anyone know what spoke length I'd need to match the new 38mm to my existing DT Swiss 240s hubs please? I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone knows the answer! Working out spoke length seems a bit of a black art to me, as not all manufacturers use the same ERD measurements?

Mine have arrived at the wheelbuilder, shame the frame for them to hang off is still over a month away.
Stuck with the 35s in the end, plenty of positive feedback and I've never been much of a wheel wrecker so the extra strength of the 38s seemed more than I needed.

My (wheelbuilders) experience of the ERD is it's best to measure in a number of places and work out what spoke length is based on that. True ERD on my second set varies by about 1mm across the wheel.

after singing their praises, i've just been informed mine are a write-off 🙄 delamination in the bead and spoke bed, bit of a bugger, almost lasted 2years

Mine have arrived at the wheelbuilder,

When did you order them Doug? I ordered 28/1 but dont have a tracking number yet. I was picky and asked them to get som at the lighter end of the range though 🙂

how many miles in 2 years? some stuff I'm happy to bin after 2 years, just depends on the use,

just had some 45mm u-shaped road things land for my brother, import/fees were £38 for reference

not huge mileage tbh as they were on my race bike, 2.5k miles maybe probably less, but a few were clumsy miles at the back end of 12hour races, I'm not devastated, they were early LB rims and i think things have moved on, now the question is replace with 27mm or go wider?

When did you order them Doug? I ordered 28/1 but dont have a tracking number yet. I was picky and asked them to get som at the lighter end of the range though

How do the 33mm Enduro's compare to 26" Flow EX's strength wise?

Do the hookless rims have the little have the UST style ridges that help prevent the tyre bead from dislodging?

just been online to pay the customs fees for my pair of 38mm hookless rims. £0 import duty, £26.44 in VAT and £13.50 for PF to handle the parcel. out for delivery tomorrow. All things considered i dont think thats too bad, with the exchange rate as it was the total spend was £320 for the pair or £160/rim. Just waiting for them to arrive and get them built onto a set of dt240s now.

I ordered spokes based on the claimed ERD and hub measurements in the manual on my (American Classic) hubs, and all the spokes were too short, by 2-3mm. Not measured to check where the fault lay, but I'd suggest they may not be!

Hmmmm

What njee said...

Fortunately I've not had to order any in specifically, but used Spocalc to work out 291 drive and 293 non for a rear build on a 30mm 29er rim with a claimed ERD of 600mm.

Suffice to say, the spokes are 2-3mm too short!

Work on an ERD of about 604mm (NOT 600mm) for the 30mm rims anyway...

Yes that's about the same as mine. Not rebuilt them, but I have broken two nipples as there's barely any thread in them. Any more go and I may rebuild.

Me too, already rebuilt rear, front has 4 cracked nipples as spokes are 2mm too short so needs to be rebuilt it lasted 18months with alloy nipples so not too bad. I think they must be quoting the erd wrong which is annoying.

The ERD on mine was a bit out too, but I measured it before buying spokes, as Roger Musson's book was adamant that claimed ERDs are often wrong and you must measure yourself. one rim was slightly different from teh other too. I also noticed slight variations around the same rim, I think it is to do with the inside surface of the rim being rough or not of consistent thickness. You pays your money and you takes your choice though, they're a budget carbon product after all.

I waited and measured mine when they arrived. Had I ordered spokes as per their ERD I would have been shortshort too. Seems they quote to the ID of the rim and don't make any allowance for the thickness of the rims itself.

From recollection, with pro2s and 35mm 29er rims we had 290 and 292.

Ive just ordered a pair, got them to define exactly what they mean by erd, its the nipple seat diameter they're specifying, not erd. But im working on them quoting 589mm erd on their 35mm 29er, taking this as the nipple seat dia, adding a couple of mm for how far I want the spike into the nipple head, did calcs assuming an erd of 592mm.

Not got the rims yet, ordered spokes from them with the rims, lets see when they turn up.

Edit: not thinking, makes sense about ERDs!

Broke another two nipples today on a pair of adjacent spokes. Wheel went quite out of true, but I did another 20 miles on it, seemingly with no ill effect. New, longer, spokes now ordered for a rebuild.

I have just built my second set, 38mm wide, 29er with Extralite hubs and DT revs. I always added 3mm to the quoted ERD.

Interesting choice - ultra light XC hubs with a wide and heavier rim?

Yep, I'm not a 'gnar' rider but liked the idea of wider rims for XC. The rims were surprisingly light at 400g each. Total weight is 1400grams.

Which hubs? Just the Ultrahubs? Or the Hyper ones? I've flirted with the idea of some HyperHubs a couple of times. It passes though 🙂

HyperJ - lovely hubs. Will take some pics and post.

Mmm. Gotta be the ones to have.

Indeed, with the good Euro rate, R2 bikes were the place to buy them. I sold my Enves to fund this little project. The new build is actually lighter than my Enves XC/DT Swiss combo.

Not surprised, it's not like the Enve rims are that light.

are these the ones you're all talking about?

http://www.light-bicycle.com/enduro-downhill-mtb-26er-carbon-rims-38mm-wide-hookless-tubeless-compatible-strongest.html#.VQ8x6vl_ug4

thanks

Yes, but 29er AM version.

Just looking for some feedback from people....

I've got some 35mm LB 29er rims on the way, it looks like they're generally 2-3mm out. Is that the experience of most on these rims?

I'd prefer to get the right lengths, instead of messing about.

Evening all!

Looking at building up a 650B set of these, but unsure whether to go for the 30 or 35mm rims, for general trail use/abuse on a full bouncer?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, also some real-world build weights with Hope Pro II's would be good!

Thanks very much, Ben.

PS; Ooh also forgot, pics, anyone with pics - Quite like the raw carbon weave finish, which is the nicest one to go for?

I just received some 650b wheels with their 38mm rims and bladed spokes on Hope hubs. Front is 770g and rear 880g on my scales. So wide my bike now looks like a tractor but I haven't ridden them further than up the road and they aren't on the bike I'm taking out tonight so no real feedback yet.

About 1650g all in then, so pretty light. I'd probably not be bothering with bladed spokes (do they make that much difference?) just standard silver DB.

I picked up my 35s at the weekend, they are 29ers so not particularly relevant but I'll give you my weights anyway!
Hope Pro 2 front and back
Sapim Race spokes.
1740g

The bladed spokes weren't much(if any) different price wise so I thought why not. I did ask them to add some spares to my order just in case I need them but they aren't straight pull or anything awkward to replace. I thought pretty good for weight considering the width. Hope hubs aren't the lightest either but, well, they're British aren't they 🙂 or maybe Blitish now they've been to China and back....

Yeah cool. Can't say I blame you!

Still unsure which width to go for, but if I do go for either of the slimmer width rims, they should weigh slightly less..

But wider is the new fad 🙂

You may also like to know how long mine took to arrive. I ordered on 24 Feb which was the tail end of Chinese New Year so there was a backlog when everyone returned to work. My wheels were posted on 31 March and arrived in the UK on 5 April. It took until 9 April to receive the letter asking for duty to be paid and as soon as I paid (on line the same day) the wheels were delivered next day. I was able to choose a day for delivery, it would have been an extra £10 if I wanted a Saturday.

The wheels appear to be well built. Tubeless set up was easy enough with some long Stan's valves (my 38mm rims are quite deep), tape from Bird MTB and some Geax tyres that were incredibly cheap from On-One. The tyres were tight to get on by hand but fine if the bead is in the well of the rim. Tyres also take a bit of unseating by hand due to the bulge in the rim but again not a big problem just meant a two handed job. I didn't use a tyre lever at all.

PS; Ooh also forgot, pics, anyone with pics - Quite like the raw carbon weave finish, which is the nicest one to go for?

Whatever you like the look of. It's cosmetic. The matte UD is pleasingly stealth, but doesn't scream carbon fibre if that matters to you. Also marks/scratches quite easily fwiw.

They all mark quite easily! My 3k matt ones show up scuffs.

Heres some pics of mine built on my old Pro 2s by Eighteen bikes, we also have a pair of the Superstar AMs for Abigales bike once she gets round to fitting them. They will be going on her Enduro so will be able to do a like for like comparison as we both weigh the same.

[img] [/img]

They were on here for a while till I sorted some 15mm adapters for my Roval Traverse

[img] [/img]

They are fitted with Enduro Pro 2.3 tyres which look massive compared to the same tyre fitted on a different rim

[img] [/img]

Oh, forgot about the picture request. I can get pictures at the weekend if I remember but I went for matte UD with no stickers so they look very, very plain. I wanted low key as I'm not very #enduro (and I had some wheels stolen in the past) but it's just a cosmetic layer so pick what looks good to you.

Yeah,I'd probably go for the 'flashier' carbon weave effect finish, it's hard to tell which finish looks like what on the LB website though.

I'd probably just buy the rims only (potentially next week) and have the rims built up over here onto Pro II hubs.

Wider is cooler, but can they be too wide, altering the tyre design profile etc? (Trail Kings F&R)

Pichure.

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[b]Scienceofficer[/b] they the matte UD version?

Currently leaning towards the middle-ground of the 35mm wide rims bought via PayPal, shipped and built by LBS onto Hope's.

Edit; some rim widths and idea of which finish would be good with pics, ta!

Mine are 26" 33mm AMs with a matt UD finish and no stickers. Like to think I went for the stealth look but bought the rims from the classified but unused so had no choice.

Yes, matte UD.

They do mark easily, but it is plastic after all.

UD Matte
[img] [/img]

Those are 35's in the picture.

Yeah pretty set on the 35mm's from this thread. Have to decide on best finish and method of payment first!

For reference I Ordered some on the 5th of march and they arrived this morning 15th April). It would of been a few days sooner but I was on holiday when the customs letter came.
Customs clearance ended costing £37 based on them being declared as $150.
I haven't seen them yet as I'm at work but I went for the 35mm wide, AM, 27.5 UD Finish with no Graphics. RM650BC05
In total they cost £317.39.

Andy

Did you just pay by standard PayPal Andy?

Pretty much exactly what I'll be ordering, so should give me some idea towards cost.

Took the plunge last month on the 30mm wide 650B AM wheelset with Pro2 hubs/DT Swiss spokes to replace my existing DT Swiss XM1501's.
Managed to get a few km's of local riding on them before flying to Chiang Mei and knocking out over 100km of DH trails there over 3 days, apart from one massive burp when running through a rocky piece of trail they were excellent.
The only thing I found though was, with an already stiff carbon bike from and handlebars, the first day was a little tough on the arms.
[img] [/img]
For the money paid, and being around 40% the price of the equivalent ENVE wheels here, they are a bargain.

For the money paid, and being around 40% the price of the equivalent ENVE wheels here, they are a bargain.

40%? Are you paying massively over the odds for LB, or are Enve really really cheap? Where's "here"?

Yeah I paid through standard paypal.
The whole process was easy really and the delivery time wasn't a problem as I'm waiting for the nomad frame they are going on to be delivered and that was ordered at the same time.

Njee, I paid 7k HK$ for the LB's, ENVE's would cost me around 18k HK$.
That works out around 610GBP/1570GBP, not exactly 40% but close.

That works out around 610GBP/1570GBP, not exactly 40% but close.

Cheap Enves then! Enve rims are £850 each here!

Njee, Bikes and most parts tend to be 30% cheaper in HK than the UK, I couldn't afford a Mach6 (or the bikes before that) if I still lived and worked in the UK!

Just a quick update, just got some 35mm 29er LB rims, they had an ERD that was 596mm, which is about 7mm out. I bought spokes which accounted for a 3mm difference in ERD, and they laced up perfectly with no thread showing.

The build quality on the 35mm looks excellent, certainly a lot better than I would have expected for £260. They built up incredibly easily, I was concerned with the spoke tension and how much to put through them, but looking on forums LB recommend a max of 180KGf, which is probably way higher than I could even crank the spokes to.

Rickon, how come the 29" rims work out so much cheaper?