A good few must be running them now, anyone who used to dent rims a lot running them and how are they standing up?
Just put another big ding in my rims, ride in a very rocky jumble mess area, are they a go or no go and stick with mavic?

Come on, at least search the whole 1st page.. 😉

This is the definitive thread, AFAIK no one’s dissatisfied with them. Someone broke one, but they also broke an Enve, an Easton Carbon and lots of alu rims IIRC. A friend broke a Light Bicycle one and they replaced it FOC, despite the fact he broke it by riding it with a flat tyre!

Been really impressed with mine, would have another set without hesitation.

AFAIK no one’s dissatisfied with them. Someone broke one, but they also broke an Enve, an Easton Carbon and lots of alu rims IIRC.

That was me. Just for the record, I have broken one alloy rim in the last 8 years. Carbon count is 2 Derby’s, one Enve & one Haven Carbon.

Derby replaced my rims, which I’m now using.

I wouldn’t say I’m dissatisfied with them, but I’m under no illusion they are stronger/lighter/better for the application I use them for.

Would I buy them again? Probably not.

I also haven’t found the magical 10% speed increase since I’ve put them back on. Must be because they aren’t Enve 🙁

Carbon count is 2 Derby’s, one Enve & one Haven Carbon.

Whilst I’m under no illusion that they’re any different (it’s genuine curiosity), have you had any Light Bicycle rims?

Hob Nob – Member

Derby replaced my rims, which I’m now using.

I wouldn’t say I’m dissatisfied with them, but I’m under no illusion they are stronger/lighter/better for the application I use them for.

Would I buy them again? Probably not.

I also haven’t found the magical 10% speed increase since I’ve put them back on. Must be because they aren’t Enve

Procore might be the solution that makes Carbon rims viable – that said, it may be a solution that negates the weight benefits too, so maybe it’s neither here nor there.

Whilst I’m under no illusion that they’re any different (it’s genuine curiosity), have you had any Light Bicycle rims?

Unless they are Derby’s in disguise – then nope! I was pondering between those & the Derby’s originally, but at the time, they had only just started on the hookless design & the Derby’s seemed a bit more established.

Procore might be the solution that makes Carbon rims viable – that said, it may be a solution that negates the weight benefits too, so maybe it’s neither here nor there.

It’s actually a fairly valid discussion point – for which I can relate to. Racing last month, I flatted about a third of a way into a stage – I rode it out on an alloy rim. The rim looked a bit worse for wear, but survived – I’m under no illusion with a carbon rim, it would have been destroyed.

The Procore thing would make sense in that instance – if only to save the rim.

It’s the failure mode that makes people think they’re poor. Most knocks the would dent an alu rim do nothing on carbon, where as the big hits that blow alu also blows carbon. It gives the impression that they’re weak, when they’re not.

Procore might (in theory at least) prevent the kind of rock-on-rim impacts that can crack a rim too. Guessing it’s actually heavier than a tube though – close to the weight of both tyre and sealant.

I flatted about a third of a way into a stage – I rode it out on an alloy rim. The rim looked a bit worse for wear, but survived – I’m under no illusion with a carbon rim, it would have been destroyed.

Yeah but I’m sure I recall in the big thread someone flatted in a race and rode the stage out on the carbon rim with no problems. I’ve got the LB rims and I’ve had a big pinch puncture that cut two large holes in an exo tyre case, but not a single mark on the rim, this kind of hit on a stan’s rim results in dents for sure. I feel I’d be able to ride these rims flat without anything more than cosmetic damage, not that I would ride a flatted tyre though. The thing I’m not so sure about is accidentally hitting things like rock water bars at speed.

You need to be careful to differentiate between the strength of the carbon and it’s toughness/hardness. I’d not hesitate to NOT ride a carbon rim flat. Its obviously more prone to rock rub than ALU and is therefore softer.

I’d not hesitate to NOT ride a carbon rim flat

I’ve read that about 5 times to try and work it out.

You mean you would ride carbon rims as long as there was air in the tyre? 😕

I broke a light bicycle 26 inch wide ‘all mountain’ carbon rim just riding along*

* alright I was just riding along down shining tor, and whacked it into a water bar at speed, but the tyre was correctly inflated etc , and the rim still cracked in two places. I put a tube in and was able to ride home, but the rim was a write off.

I have since replaced it with their hookless downhill version of the rim, so will see how that goes, but if I bust this one, then I’m going back to Flows/Dt ex500’s. I’ve never broken an alu rim, but I’ve also never ridden an alu rim down shining tor , so maybe it would also have broken.

I’ve read that about 5 times to try and work it out.
You mean you would ride carbon rims as long as there was air in the tyre?

I deliberately phrased it like that to highlight the fact I would make a specific effort to avoid riding out a flat on a carbon rim, something that I’d happily do to most of the ally rims I’ve had.

I’ve never broken an alu rim.

My point exactly about failure mode. Alu dents and bends, absorbing energy as it does so. Carbon does nothing until it receives a hit big enough to make it fail.

julians what you doing riding the bars? your supposed to hop over them 😉

I think I saw your spesh wheels in the shop just before you had them, I must admit they look good value for £400 less discount! very light and very wide and spesh stuff just works (plus the DT swiss internals!)

I deliberately phrased it like that to highlight the fact I would make a specific effort to avoid riding out a flat on a carbon rim, something that I’d happily do to most of the ally rims I’ve had.

Ah, that’s an infinitely clearer way of saying that!

😉

I really like the idea of replacing my flow rims with some LB ones but I can see a fair few rock scuffs on the flows and often hear rocks bouncing off them. Do carbon rims hold up to that sort of abuse?

From my own set, I’d say they’re on a par with stans rims, or a bit softer.

Yeah but I’m sure I recall in the big thread someone flatted in a race and rode the stage out on the carbon rim with no problems. I’ve got the LB rims and I’ve had a big pinch puncture that cut two large holes in an exo tyre case, but not a single mark on the rim, this kind of hit on a stan’s rim results in dents for sure. I feel I’d be able to ride these rims flat without anything more than cosmetic damage, not that I would ride a flatted tyre though. The thing I’m not so sure about is accidentally hitting things like rock water bars at speed.

That’s part of the issue – everyone has a different experience, so personal evidence is mostly anecdotal.

All I know is, based on my experience of riding and racing (to a fairly uniform level/standard over the past 18 months) I’ve broken significantly more carbon wheels than I have in the past 8 years of riding alloy.

Which, based on the above leads me to think they aren’t as strong as an alloy wheel. A big hit that can put a sizable ding in an alloy wheel is likely to terminally crack a carbon rim. There is no give. It either deflects, or fails.

I hope the rims I have now last, just because it’s a pain in the arse, more than anything.

You must be otherwise liking them though, right? Because you’ve not gone back to alloy even after four failures?

The Easton was the first to break, which I initially put down to bad luck, the Derby’s came next & obviously I had some issues there, around the same time I spotted a set of super cheap Enve’s locally, which I did initially buy to split for the hubs & sell the rims for a tidy profit, but ended up using & cracking the front. I sold the rear.

I’m only still on them because Derby warrantied my original rims. If I break these, and I don’t get any warranty, I wouldn’t buy them again.

Procore might be the solution that makes Carbon rims viable – that said, it may be a solution that negates the weight benefits too, so maybe it’s neither here nor there.

Lateral stiffness of carbon rims is higher than alu rims, secondly the procore system will be great on aluminium rims as well and will allow you to run ridiculously low pressures when you need to without fear of denting your rims. So you’re still saving weight if you want to run it.

Had LB XC 29er hookless rims for about 6 months now. Done XC marathon races, Enduros and two weeks alpine riding and they have been great. I ride pretty hard.

If I was to criticize them, the finish is a bit soft and they scuff up pretty easily. Only a real problem if you are precious about how your bike looks.

So you’re still saving weight if you want to run it.

Compared to what? It adds 200g over a ‘standard’ tubeless system, so you only save weight if you take 200g off your wheels somewhere else 😕

It looks a great idea, but I can see virtually no circumstances where you’ll save weight.

Carbon rims generally aren’t that much lighter, it’s more marked at the extremes of use, but for most ‘trail’ type rims there’s no that much difference, certainly not 100g for an equivalent rim IMO.

I’m worried about giving any opinions on my carbon wheels, in case I get the thread locked because some chopper thinks I’m a Farsports ‘plant’ 😆

I must have missed that one.

Mine have a couple of decent marks in them now, from hits where I’m pretty sure that my old Flow Exes would have had a decent sized, possibly troublesome dent in. So that’s a good start, but I’ve not really hit them hard enough to have destroyed a strong alu rim with any certainty either. And I do still swap to my cheaper alu ones for some things

But then, they don’t weigh the same as a Flow Ex, they weigh the same as a Crest, and I’d never put a Crest on either of these bikes. The heavier of my 2 wheelsets weighs pretty much the same as my old Roval Traversees and they’ve already proved stronger

(I like the Traversees btw but they were dying from the day I fitted them in a 6 inch bike- acceptably slowly but it was when not if)

Anyone tried 29er ones for CX?

Ive got the 35mm ones on my 29er, very pleased with mine so far but then again I ran crests on my trail bike for 18 months with zero issues. Deliberating whether to get the 30mm ones for my new 650b enduro bike……