I’m looking at Light Bicycle currently, but there’s plenty out there to choose from. A bit of googling seems to suggest that they don’t last very long, which puts me off, especially as I was hoping to put them on my commuter/tourer/shopper/life bike. What do people think?

why bother spending that amount of cash on rims for a commuter/tourer/shopper/life bike?

why bother spending that amount of cash on rims for a commuter/tourer/shopper/life bike?

Great point, well made!

I was trying to work this out, I think it’s mainly because:
1) I fricken love that bike
2) I really want to try out some carbon rims
3) I fricken love that bike

LB are a good company IMO – I’ve had 2 sets of their wheels over past 8 yrs or so

for a bike you’ll be riding over potholes, possibly heavily laden – hmmm

Buy it some good alu rims, maybe nice hubs too if you truly love it

Depending on the wheel size, you might be better off looking at some of the Reynolds wheelsets on Wiggle.

I got a 27.5 40mm wide set of the black label ones for £850 ish a few months ago.
For decent carbon rims with I9 hubs, the price was good and not worth messing about trying to get rims only and relacing etc.

Are any carbon rims worth it?

Sure, the more you pay, the better you get but what actual, cost-justifiable benefits do they offer?

I’ve had a few from LB and they’ve all been fine quality wise. But yeah, it’s pretty close value wise as your paying circa £250 for a pair of their cheaper rims, factor in hubs, spokes and building then your not far off something ready built from a shop in the UK if you find some with a bit of discount.

LB are a good company IMO – I’ve had 2 sets of their wheels over past 8 yrs or so

I’ve had a few from LB and they’ve all been fine quality wise

How long did they last? If they’re lasting for 8 years that sounds great!

Are any carbon rims worth it?

Possibly not, but sometimes there’s an itch that needs to be scratched…

the price was good and not worth messing about trying to get rims only and relacing etc.

I have a rather nice dynamo hub that needs to go on the front wheel unforts..

How long did they last? If they’re lasting for 8 years that sounds great!

Well they are, but they’re deepish road rims so maybe not comparable

Rim or disc brakes? Definitely wouldn’t go with carbon for rim brakes.

Otherwise, I only really think it’s worth it for aero, but I wouldn’t have too many concerns about longevity.

I have one LB rim. All others are DT (XM421/481/551 and EX471/511).
Only reason I have an LB is that DT don’t make 29+ rims.

I’d far rather save money and get DT alloy rims and spend the left overs on beer/burritos/whatever.

I have two sets of lb rims and would happily buy again. Price wise, they didn’t seem much different from high end alu models.
Another plus was that I could order them with a sealed rim bed.

Light bycicle rims, How long did they last? If they’re lasting for 8 years that sounds great!

Calling @northwind to the forum.

LB do a Flyweight version of some of their rims. I’ve got one on order for the front wheel of my road bike as I’m undergoing an upgrade to wider and deeper with less spokes on front and rear. I wouldn’t use an Flyweight version on the rear wheel. It might be one of these that people are damaging. In my experience carbon rims are pretty strong and dead easy to lace. Not sure if I’d use them on a downhill rig but for xc and road I do and they’ve been great. Rotational weight savings are pretty handy. Plus you get exactly the spec you want. My front wheel will be a flyweight version 38mm 28 spoke laced with DT Swiss Revs to an SP dynamo hub. I went for a 50mm Standard on the rear. Currently run 32 spoke on the front as that’s all SP supplied their dynamos in six years ago. SP dynamo bearings inevitably fail so the less spokes to re-lace the better which is why I am now changing to 28 spokes, plus it balances out with the rear which is currently 28 spoke.
If you want carbon just get them. LB will build a whole wheelset with a dynamo hub built in at a pretty good price.

P.S. you’ve just missed a sale which from memory was 15% on their higher priced rims.

I bought a set of AR46 rims recently for the gravel bike and despite the time they took to arrive I wouldn’t hesitate to buy again based on the quality of them, was pleasantly surprised.

I have two sets of carbon rims, one from lb. These are 7/8 years old, and have stood up to a lot of abuse, including Alps trips. Just make sure the tyre pressures are high enough to avoid repeated rim dings, and you’ll be fine

I have a pair of carbon rim brake wheels. Not from LB. They are three years old, the brake track is still fine. Appear to be indestructible apart from the inevitable scratches that come from being used.

Next set that I buy will be from a country that doesn’t put people in labour camps.

It’s all sounding pretty encouraging tbh. Apart from the labour camps, that’s less than optimal

I’ve had Nextie 320g 28h carbon gravel rims on my commuter for the last 5000km. They’ve been ridden in everything: mud, rain, sleet, etc, and across everything: Gravel, rocks, tarmac, even a beach. They also been slammed into potholes at speed, missing drain covers and jumped from kerbs, small (less than 12”) walls, etc carrying my weight (70kg) and panniers.

Not a single problem.

This is my 6th set of Nextie rims (and I’ve got another set in the garage to build up) and my 9th set of carbon rims. Two of these are LB sets.

I’ve never broken one in 6 years and probably 35k km of MTB, Gravel and Road. I’ve pinch flatted a few tyres in that time too.

I wouldn’t buy unbranded, but companies with a history and a warranty like LB and Nextie, yes definitely.

Just to say, whilst carbon rims make for nice, light commuter wheels, they are VERY stiff and harsh. Potholes hit on the same bike with the same tyres at the same pressures, before and after replacing PACENTI SL25 with Nextie GR30 was notably harsher.

That’s a good point re: harshness, that might really put me off

I’ve had a few LB rims- one of the first 26er ones which was stupidly light, I put it in a hardtail and broke it at BPW on a big rock after a load of use, an alu rim of similar weight wouldn’t have lasted a month. They gave me a crash replacement discount so I got a pair for the enduro bike, which lasted til 26er was killed then I sold them on after a decent life. Then got a set of 29er middleweight ones which I broke a rear from last year, ironically also at BPW- no big trauma, it just felt like it’d given all it had and just quietly passed away. Incidentally both broken rims remained rideable- in fact I rode for another 4 days of the holiday on the cracked 26er one. Not true of 2 of the alu rims I damaged in the same time which were immediately unusable.

I am light though. I’m a pretty reasonable rider and they all did uplift days, races, as well as tons and tons of XC and tweed valley offpiste. Each time I broke one i felt it’d overachieved and I really didn’t mind that it broke- wheels are a consumable.

In terms of feel, “harsh”? I have a set of DT 511s which have the exact same dimensions as the LB rims and often have the same tyres, so the best comparison possible- I can’t tell the difference at all except obviously the weight. I suspect that most people who have a strong opinion about carbon harshness (or compliance for that matter) couldn’t recreate it in a blind test…

Buuut, I would definitely say that LB aren’t that cheap anymore, and also that alu rims have got a lot better than they were in that decade. It was always a no-brainer for me before but that last one nearly got a DT alu rim replacement.

And the entire benefit for me, is good mtb lifespan and low weight- for a commuter you don’t need that strength and you can go very light with alu without worrying about clobbering a rock. In fact, I did- found some unfashionable old XC rims. Not as nice to look at but they zip.

From what I gather and having seen some in the flesh on a mate’s bikes he’s had for years, LB seem to be a proper company, they are cheap because you have to import them directly. They aren’t the same category as the cheapo eBay ones IMO. Having said that a lot of people use the cheapo eBay ones on the track, but that’s because they don’t have to worry about potholes or braking surfaces.

I have two pairs of 29er LB rims built on Hope hubs. The oldest pair is from 2014 and are still being used on my Bird AM9 and the second pair was built in 2016 and are on my old Ragley Bigwig which my daughter has now commandeered. I’m not the heaviest rider at 75kg but both wheelsets have taken a proper beating over the years and are still going strong so I would definitely recommend them. Not as cheap as they once were though.

commuter/tourer/shopper/life bike

What exactly is the bike?
Disc or rim braked?
Another Gravel bike with a panniers serving general duties, or a 1986 Dawes Galaxy?

Tyres? 23 or 45mm?

My own commuter/winter bike gets mostly cast offs and cheap parts and I still love it (perhaps more for being an old dog), I’m not sure carbon rims would improve it beyond a minor weight saving.

In my mind carbon rims are still a “for best” investment (even the relatively cheap ones) not for a daily “beater” bike, but YMMV of course…

The thing is that currently, the way my life has gone with various work/relationship/life commitments etc, the commuter/tourer/shopper/life bike is the one I ride the most- by quite some margin. So, if I want to check out carbon rims- and part of me does, I am a fair bit curious, then realistically that’s the best bike to put them on. Unfortunately, as things are, the other bikes are either gathering dust or getting sold on. Which breaks (brakes (sp) (obvs)) my heart but there we go! Such is life I guess

Ps not sure how the tyre width and type of bike affects the outcome but it’s a disc braked (breaked) Genesis Croix de Fer frame with 35-38 mm tyres. It also has panniers.

It’s not as bling but changing tyres can make a huge difference to the way a bike feels for a lot less money.

From plenty of experience, carbon rims are generally noticeably more harsh than their alloy equivalents. Of course there are more compliant carbon rims, and there are harsher alloy rims, so there is probably some overlap, but if we were to take an average of each of alloy vs carbon, then the avg carbon rim will be substantially harsher ride than alloy, if that makes sense…?

Ps not sure how the tyre width and type of bike affects the outcome but it’s a disc braked (breaked) Genesis Croix de Fer frame with 35-38 mm tyres. It also has panniers.

Tyre width and shape affects things greatly, but I suspect you’re at or close to your size limit already on that bike. There is also the construction to consider, tubeless vs tubed, rubber compounds and tread pattern. All will make a difference.

As for the bike… If there’s one bike NOT to fit carbon rims to it’s the one you want to be comfy cos you ride it all the time as a commuter, often loaded up with panniers and extra weight.

Carbon rims are really only worth it in a situation where stiffness and power transfer (and more likely aero, as deep section alloy rims are HEAVY) are far more important than longevity or comfort…

I’d agree that my LB rims are appreciably harsher than alloy Flows, say, on the same bike. The other thing I’ve noticed is that they do feel more precise in certain situations, hold a line better on nadgery off camber stuff for example, which sounds like BS, but that’s how they feel to me.

Tbh, if you were going to stick carbon wheels on a CDF. I’d question whether you might get more bang for your buck by spending that money on a new frame, maybe titanium. Personally I’d not stick carbon rims on my cheapo carbon cross bike because it gets hammered and I’d be afraid of breaking them. YMMV etc.

What do you want the carbon wheels to do for your bike btw?