I last night discovered a fatal crack in my rear Giant XCR1 carbon wheel.  Stuff happens I guess, but I don’t recall a loud bang or an rock interface of note.  Wheel is stock Giant and came with my Anthem 1 last January.  LBS are very good and now have the wheel and are speaking with Giant, which is all I can hope for.  A like for like replacement is rather spendy but with some discount I will likely do so.

Anyway, got me thinking about the wheels – they are very stiff, very light, very nice, but are they very durable ?  I have written off a handful of alloy rims over the years, mainly on water bars on the Cairngorms, but these are my first carbon rims on a mtb.  So what’s the consensus, if there is one, on carbon wheels for an xc FS ?

I seem to rememer another thread about giant carbon rims cracking. Giant were good at replacing like for like iirc

^^^^ I didn’t see that one, but sounds encouraging !

After watching this,I fancy a set of carbon rims for XC+ riding

^^^ funnily enough, I had that video in mind when I posted…..

A few mates have the sixth element wheelset Iain, Pro4 hubs, around 600 quid IIRC?. Half the price of Reserve wheelset, and get lots of love in reviews.

I wouldn’t, but I’m sore on rims, so really see them as a consumable…

Big tyres + carbon rims = no problems

Skinny tyres + carbon rims = asking for trouble

A mate of mine had issues with his Giant carbon rims breaking and he didn’t huck off his garage roof.

I’ve got DT Swiss Carbon rims on my Capra and Jeffsy, both bikes have been badly ridden down rocky stuff for years, rims are fine.

Benefits – well good carbon rims are light and resilient to *Welsh rocks.  They spin up fast, noticeably so when I rode a non carbon rimmed Capra and compared it to mine.

*Other rocks are available.

Just piqued my interest on the SixthElement mention so I took a look. Sadly not as cheap as suggested (£989-£1489 depending on racyness). Still not a bad price with UK backup and not foolish taking into account the carbon market, but  definitely out of the expensive wheels bracket and into primo-spendy/youcouldbuyacarforthat territory!

I’ve been running two pairs of (unfashionably narrow now) Farsports carbon rims on my XC 29er for the past five years with no issues. They’ve had a hard life at times!

some useful info, thanks. It sounds like there are lots of good ones and some not so good ones…  Will wait and see what shop says, thanks

I’ve been looking into this…
Light bicycle rims are, what, £150 a rim now (with the gamble of import..)
Nextie rims are £250….

It’s a pricey upgrade, but would look Soooooo good on the bling singlespeed!!

DrP

I though Giant rims had a well known reputation for being a bit cracky.

£699 for a set of Blueflows  http://www.blueflowwheels.com/product/35mm-wide-27-5-mountain-enduro-ud-wheels/

The Kevlar skin is certainly unique,

Ooooo… those Blueflows do look like something that might be in my bikes’ future later this year…

Thanks dumbbot!

I think it depends on how hard you ride the bike they are going on. I’ve had LB rims in the past but they were on the enduro bike and I eventually clobbered a pointy rock when smashing through a Lakes’ rock garden and crack… there goes the rear.

On the weenie 29er I also run LB rims but these get a much less extreme life, and they perform well – light, stiff, handsome.

So for me.. enduro – alloy, weenie – carbon

I think the big thing with carbon is, people want it to be light so there’s a temptation to make it too light. I have carbon rims on a long travel 29er, never had a problem with strength. I broke a lightbicycle 26er but it took a long time, it was in the rear of a hardcore hardtail and it outlived the 2 heavier alu rims I had before so I didn’t mind at all.

Having said that I do have a set of big hefty alu rims for harder use, not so much because I think they’re stronger, but because sooner or later you’re going to mangle a rim and I’d rather do it to a £45 rim.