light bicycle carbon rims

You’re so bitter. How are your Gnarroad rimz?

GavinB – Member
Just received mine this morning, and despite double-checking with them on ERD, they are 3 mm out. Quoted as 589 and measured 592mm. It’s not a massive difference, but the spokes will be 1.5mm shorter than optimal.

Question for the wheel builders out there, would you build knowing the spokes were a touch short?

Go for bigger nipples?

Sorry

*pops outside for a moment, laughs, composes self, comes back in*

Yeah, bigger nipples might be needed, although I think I’ll manage as is, I’ll just have to be careful not to wind the nipples all the way up initially.

Annoying though, as I did double-check with them, although they admitted to me today that the way they measure/quote ERD does “not include the nipple height”, which being around 1.5-2mm, will account for the difference. Anyway, I’m just flagging it up to either wait until you have your rims and measure them yourself, or else if you are an impatient bugger 😳 then add a few mm onto the quoted ERD.

Great, just read this about ERD differences! My spokes turned up today based on the measurements LB gave me. Rims should arrive in a couple of weeks. I’ll just have to hope I have enough length else wasted money 👿

My 30mm internal 29ers were built with lazers and have been fine. I have another pair made with race and I prefer the lazer wheels, they ride better, a bit more supple.

Cracked a rim about 2 weeks ago and awaiting replacement from LB.

So when you’re waiting for your wheels to turn up what do you get from LB?

An email on dispatch or do you just get a bill for duty in the post?

Not that i’m getting impatient or anything, really

I got an email to say that they had been dispatched and a tracking reference, which worked via Parcelforce once it was in the UK, then after a bit of a wait, a letter with the customs bill.

I emailed after a week or two and was told a date when I’d get a tracking number (which I guess means they’ll be on their way at that point) so they know despatch dates in advance if you want to check.

I had to wait a wee while until they sent me a tracking email. It was long enough for me to get nervous and email them to ask what was happening, they were still in production. They actually emailed me to say that the wheels were in the UK and awaiting customs charges to be paid, they must have noted on tracking that I hadn’t paid yet. I had, Parcel Force are just nobbers…

Cheers guys,

I’ll drop them an email, my Monday night hardtail escapades remnided me why i ride a bouncy bike

What tyre brands go up OK on the current LB 35mm rims folks?

My ideal is I can get them up with a track pump, and off without too much sweat on the trail with just a couple of levers.

Thx.

I have a set of 30mm ones – a bontrager symmetric rim strip fits like it was custom-designed for them. Pair of used racing ralphs snapped on fine, but didn’t hold air (guess it was either the sidewalls or some homemade valves I was using). Pair of new ground controls snapped on and inflate first time with a track pump.

So I think the rim design is perfect for TLR tyres, and if the bontrager strip will accommodate 35 mm then that would also be a good choice.

On the warranty side of things, I cracked a rim and they sent me a new rim and all I had to pay for was the shipping. Brilliant customer service.

So cost-wise, how much would it be to order a pair of rims and have them built up into an existing hub? The only reason I ask, is superstar are doing a complete set of their carbon wheels for £450 now, which seems like a bargain

I built a set of DT350 hubs, DT supercomp spokes and 35mm LB rims for 450 all in, including shipping costs and customs charges, although I didn’t have any build costs because I did it myself. Are the superstars comparable? I don’t know.

Mine are taking foreverrrrrr to get here. Over a month now and they’ve still not been posted.

Mine are in uk customs. Took 13 working days to be posted. That’s the 38mm am rims. Don’t know why yours are taking so long scaled?
Mine cost £280 delivered, plus whatever customs charge (labeled $100). Spokes and nipples were £30, build myself, so a lot cheaper than ss (but on old hubs of course).

I’m waiting on some 26″ am 27mm internal width ones at the moment will be about £350 the pair I think inc charges etc
And id guess about £50 for apokes and nipples. By the time I get some hubs it will be way more than the super star ones but I will have exactly what I want

It varies. Last set I ordered took 7 weeks. Previous set took 2 weeks.

Depends what they have in stock and what needs to be manufactured.

Got my rims today from the depot! £30 charge. Built the front up onto a Superstar Ultra Lite hub (15mm) with DT competition spokesx32, 14mm brass nipples. 806g without rim tape, valve+rotor. Pic of completed wheel tomorrow, but heres the rim and a comparison to Flow donor rim:

LB 38mm rim

They are massive in comparison to the Flow!

Like their new graphics. Still getting tempted to try their road rims

How did the ERD match up against the published ones when you came to do the build?

They quote the ERD as 535mm. I measured at 529/530mm internally (not the most accurate measurement), but I think the ERD should be to where the nipple sits inside the rim, so maybe +4mm. I would need a piece of string with a knot in or similar to measure. My spokes were fine though, which I ordered prior to rims arriving. 260mm x 48 and 262 x 16 (although not built the rear yet).

cool, thanks.

They are massive in comparison to the Flow!

Wow aren’t they just. 😯

To think, back in the day before Stan’s rims were ubiquitous, the light but wide Flow was something of a curiosity, and pretty wide even by DH standards!

It looks pitiful in those pictures.

The 38mm rim depth make the 650b light bicycles look like 26″ rims. It’s a bizarre optical illusion, a side effect of making the trails come alive.

Rear 142×12 same spokes and nipples as above on Superstar Switch Evo hub (Ali freehub), no valves/tape, rotor 1014g

So are most people now going with the 38mm rim rather than the 35mm option for the more aggressive end of trail riding with a few uplifts thrown in. Would prefer the 35mm’s due to looks and weight but LB seem to be stearinv lots of people towards the bigger rim.

Also interested to hear from those with the above if they are actually finding more grip etc or if there are any negatives with then.

For reference they’ll be going on a NP Mega AM 275.

Yeah, LB did sort of encourage me to get the 38mm rim. I wasnt sure whether I’d need the extra strength, but thuoght I might as well get their latest. After looking at the Enve M60/70 rims, they look pretty similar, so maybe its a good thing! My tyres dont look much bigger on the rims though – I thought they would? Used them at the weekend and they definitely felt stiffer, not a massive difference, but it was noticeable. I’m looknig forward to trying them on my local trails to really notice the difference.

I ignored them and stuck with the 35s. Struggled to see much benefit of the 38s, there was never any reported issues with the strength of the 35s and there was few other benefits of the 38, marginal stiffness with a downside of extra weight. In fact the additional stiffness of the 38 I was concerned might be something of a downside. So far so good, loving them.

here was never any reported issues with the strength of the 35s

I and a few others on this thread have smashed some.

Those the 38s do looks a lot meatier but even if it make sense they just look cartoonishly OTT to me.

Might look into it to replace the 35 if they’re considerably stronger though.

Anyone have an opinion of how they ride with standard-sized tyres?

I and a few others on this thread have smashed some.

Don’t doubt it, but the failure rate doesn’t seem to be at such a level that I’d class it an “issue”, rather just the reality that there will always be breakages of parts no matter what.

If you’re a wheel wrecker the 38s might work out for you.

Mafia – agree on the looks of the 38’s.

Doug – what king of riding are you doing on the 35’s just for reference

I like the look of the 38’s. but then I have 29er version so maybe they look worse on smaller wheels. Got to say when they arrived because they were so chunky I thought they had sent me the wrong size and went and held them up against another wheel to make sure they were 29″.

Has anybody had full wheels with hope hubs off them? I saw a comment somewhere that they thought the hope hubs were copies, seems kind of unlikely for a company with LB’s reputation, but then again I don’t think there is the same tradition of trade protection in China.

Doug – what king of riding are you doing on the 35’s just for reference

Bit of everything. At the more “extreme” end of the rim killing scale they’ve survived trips up parts of the West Highland Way (rocks), Fort Bill (even more rocks), Kinlochleven (even more rocks+water bars). Running c.20psi in them so the rims likely get there fair share of hits on the bigger stuff. Kinlochleven was rocky enough to cause 2 punctures in 1 day but rims unscathed.
Admittedly I’m only 6 weeks into ownership but they’ve not exactly had an easy time of it so far.

Has anybody had full wheels with hope hubs off them?

I have. It never even crossed my mind they may be copies so I haven’t inspected them beyond seeing the Hope logo. The price they charge isn’t suspiciously low and they sound like Hope hubs so I ‘hope’ they are genuine.

Has anybody had full wheels with hope hubs off them?

Likewise, my local LBS swear they are copies based on the internals, and it being a Hong Kong LBS I’m sure they have seen this before, but they seem to be holding up well so far.