Got a tiny dent from an unnoticed flat while riding single track, wheel is pretty much completely fine but I’ve been wanting to go deepish carbon for a while now.
With my type of riding being mostly road but bombing down any trail I come across along the way, are carbon wheels suitable/strong enough? I know they’re much stronger than aluminum but especially with how this wheel turned out, I’m a little worried I’m going to crack the wheel with how I ride and how heavy I am (95kg). I always thought the point of failure on my stock rims would be the spokes but I guess not.
My original plan was to get some deep Chinese/Nextie rims and custom build a wheelset, but given that strength is a concern, should I get a set something more “established” like Reserve rims instead? Or are they not that much better that Chinese carbon?
I could go with two wheelsets, one road oriented and the other trail, but I’m fine with riding road on my trail tires and honestly would rather just change the tire on the rare occasion I do road only. Plus having to baby the wheels would take away from the fun a bit.
by Commercial_Green_280
5 Comments
Well if you dented the aluminum rim, carbon could have been gone. If you have the money, go for it. If not, maybe high quality aluminum wheels would be a better suit?
I smack my Reserves occasionally when I let the pressure get too low between rides and forget to pump. 104kg and no damage.
Splurge on yourself. You deserve it.
I bought cheap Elites, not even the nice Drives, and ride loads of Colorado singletrack. I bang the rims all the time but have not damaged them yet, though I’ve wrecked a couple of tires.
I have an old set of Bontrager LinePro30 wheels. They were one of the first batches available, I worked part-time for a shop at the time and happened to be working the day they hit the warehouses.
I have done a lot of stupid shit to those wheels. They’ve been down Whole Enchilada and Monarch Crest numerous times, they’ve done thousands of miles of rocky/rooty singletrack in NWA, KC, CO, NM, UT, and AZ. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard the rim strike a square edge….and they’re still kicking.
That being said, I’ve seen top-end Zipp and Enve rims shatter because somebody looked at them wrong. The rule I usually tell people is to only buy what you can afford to replace.
Upgrading is a separate matter but that is barely dented, if it still holds a tubeless seal I wouldn’t even fix it. If you want to fix it, watch youtube videos for the technique of using a crescent wrench and a tire lever or cone wrench or paint stirrer or something flat on the outside to prevent marring.
I’ve done this on mtb hoops many times, it’s just life. If you get one that can’t be fixed well enough to seal, or if you get a flat spot that detensions spokes, you probably will replace the hoop at some point but what you have there is pretty much nothing and par for the course riding off road.