Review: Derby 29in x35mm HD Wheels

By Barney

• Width (internal): 30mm
• Weight (pair): 1,760g
• Available: 29in x 35mm, 27.5in x 40mm and 26in x 40mm

Derby rims advertise themselves as the world’s first wide carbon fibre rims. They’re available in a variety of sizes and the two pairs sent for us to test, these are the larger, yet narrower 29in pair in a Heavy Duty carbon lay-up.

The 35mm-wide rims come in at around 30mm internal diameter, similar to other wheels in this test, and they have a hookless bead. I initially thought that the bead seemed rather shallow, although there’s a very long seat ridge between the bead and the nipple trough, which the Derby website assures me minimises tubeless cornering burps and keeps the tyres on the rim, even if they’ve flatted. The rims are quite deep section, and they’ve got nice understated graphics. Handily, the valve hole is marked by a large white triangle.

Our test wheels are built up onto none-more-swish Chris King hubs in a lovely gold anodised colour with 28 DT Swiss Competition spokes, and alloy 16mm nipples in a standard three-cross pattern. I’m fairly sceptical of the longevity of alloy nipples, especially in British winters, but they do keep the weight down, and the website is insistent that there are no corrosion problems with alloy nipples and carbon rims.

I put Specialized and Schwalbe tyres onto these rims with no real problems: the Specialized tyres were quite a tight fit, but once eased on with the requisite tubeless fluid they went up and stayed up with no problems at all. Despite what I initially thought about the bead depth, I’ve had no problem whatsoever in terms of burping or rolling – on the contrary, the wider rim profile had a similar effect to the others on test: I could run much lower pressures, there was much less squirm as the tyre sidewall was supported and I got the bags and bags of traction that come with lower pressures and larger footprint, with far fewer terrifying, tyre-failing downsides.

I battered them down a variety of hugely rocky descents, and despite the fact that I’m close to the weight limit of these rims (and far from smooth in most instances), I’ve experienced no issues whatsoever; they’ve remained true and taut throughout. Great rims, built into great wheels.

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Review Info

Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.

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