Eyelets vs no Eyelets on wheels?

Is one stronger that the other, otherwise, whats the advantage?   Looking at Crest S1’s to avoid the standard Mk3 braking issue…

‘it depends’ – on the design, rim thickness, material etc.

I’ve got carbon wheels with no eyelets and aluminium with and without. Not had problems with eyelets cracking on any of my wheels.

I’ve rebuilt a couple of sets for friends recently – one alu, one carbon and they both had spoke washers fitted when I took them apart (with no eyelet obviously) so someone obviously thought spoke strait onto rim was an issue (maybe just during the initial build though where the spoke would rotate on the rim surface,

possible durability.

corrosion of the rim where the nipple turns against it could weaken it ad /or cause the niplle to sieze. If theres an eyelet there’s a bit extra material for the nipple to turn against, kinda like a washer.

It’s a nonissue with good eyelettless wheels, but people still get caught up in it just because uneyeletted used to mean cheap and nasty. After my 721s cracked all to buggery around the eyelets I kind of stopped drinking the koolaid 😛

If you take the weight that you would have put into the eyelets, and put it into actual structure, you get a stronger rim basically. And if you don’t, you get a lighter rim. It might make a difference in the really long term but I think for most wheels us lot buy, that doesn’t arise.

It’s a nonissue with good eyelettless wheels, but people still get caught up in it just because uneyeletted used to mean cheap and nasty.

This was what I was going to write, almost exactly, and wholly agree with the rest of NW’s post.

Buy the rims you want and don’t worry about it, far more factors at play than whether they’re eyeletted or not.

S1 wheelset still has a 86kg weight limit.

I’ve been running crests for the past 18months. Front wheel is full of cracks, on second rear rim, first rim died after 1200 miles, second one is on 1800 or so. They are a very light rim, big trade off with durability.

Will be binning them off and replacing with an XR361 or XM401 rim, bit of a weight penalty. but more durable in the longterm. £250 on a wheel build (rims, spokes, labour) every 12 months is a bit daft.

Ok, I was thinking Crest S1 in leiu of a  DT/Stans Arch build from actionsports.   Think’s I’ll go DT’s/Arch….

Thanks

Max spoke tension for crests is 930N, Arch/DT is 1200N.

One of the guys I ride with has cracked a Mk3 Arch, but it has been a lot of use on a singlespeed, circa 3000miles. Arch Mk3 / xm4XX can’t go wrong really.