I was thinking of the Light Bicycle ones at 250gm, crazy light but now $600 a pair posted. Carbonal do some at 350gm for $360 but that seems a lot when there are still some Stans etc kicking around for a lot less (admittedly not as strong, Alphas 340gm, Iron Cross 400gm).
Am I missing anything?
What tyres at what pressure are you thinking? It seems that narrow tyres need higher pressures needs more material means more weight. MTB-XC stuff is often lighter if you're not going over 40 psi.
I'm currently building some Nextie xc carbon rims up for the gravel bike
I'm a low pressure convert so I don't think that's an issue (tho there's a need for higher pressures on gravel tyres and narrow rims obvs).
Are you aware of any such rims as light as above?
They did have some light rims but I'm too heavy for most of those. My Nextie rims sub 400g each with the advantage (for me) of sealed rim beds as an option so I can swap tyres without having to worry about tape.
https://www.nextie.com/ultralight-mountain-clincher-30mm-NXT29UM30
Thanks for that, their hubs and spokes are silly light, v interesting.
Am I missing anything?
Rim Depth and width for Road/Gravel?
Basically do you want a deeper section for teh Aeroz and/or wider section for chonkier tyres/bonus Aeroz? (also consider that depth can increase the rims stiffness to an extent)
If you do want a deep, wide rim in any material, it's obviously going to weigh more. Iron Cross is apparently just 20mm int and 17.5mm tall making it a very light (and relatively skinny) Aluminium rim. The LB AR25 manages that 250g with 24mm internal and 25mm high profile (obviously in carbon and at considerably more cost)...
I'm currently running one Ambrosio P20 (24h) at 20mm int/ 27mm tall/475g on the front and an Alex Rims RD30 (28h) at 19mm int/30mm tall/386g as a pair of lashed together (half from the spares bin) Cheap TR road wheels, they're working well but I'm already mulling the idea of a LB 'AR28' for a lighter, wider front wheel build in a relatively "shallow" profile.
for comparison a DT swiss R460 is affordable and TR, but more costly than either of the Al rims I'm already using and at 450g, 18mm int/23mm tall there's no real dimensional or weight advantages, but it is from a reputable brand and a known quantity in terms of performance.
My Gravel wheelset is just using a pair of ancient 32h WTB STi25 (cheap MTB rims), which have bee rebuilt several times on different hubs and weigh a good 595g each (from memory), means I can run anything from a 30mm to a 2.2" tyre without fuss (frame/fork clearance not withstanding), obviously aero and weight are not considered there, just weight and robustness.
Basically there's a whole host of trade-offs you can choose between that affect cost/material/width/depth/weight, similar to MTBs just with different weighting on the criteria.
So how important is budget Vs weight Vs aerodynamics Vs tyre volume to you OP?
Aero is not a factor at all. Robustness is to an extent but how do we quantity that? I bought Olympic rims early on and it took me over a decade to bend them (I'm 80kg) so I guess I'm light on kit. Rim wideness not a huge issue either.
