5- 6- spoke carbon wheels from Ali?

[mirphak]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience of buying 5- or 6- spoke carbon wheels from Aliexpress. They are a little on the heavy side (typically 1500-1600g vs 1200-1400g of usual pillar spoke wheels) and significantly more expensive, but omg they do look awesome and I guess no need of checking spoke tension at all over time?.

Particularly I was checking these ones:

- Beskardi (6-spoke, 25mm external): https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005004922878255.html (1.4-1.5kg, this one in marble finishing looks really good, and it is not very heavy. Probably road wheel).
- Ican (6-spoke, 20mm internal, road?) https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005003058790809.html (about 1.5 kg)
- Elitewheels (5-spoke, 19mm internal): https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005003960501475.html (quite heavy, for allroad/gravel <45mm tires? )
- Elitewheels (5-spoke, 22mm internal): https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005004675341604.html (somewhat heavy, but gravel width up to probably 50mm)

Anyone has any refferente or comment on them?

[carbonazza]

Wondering what is the advantage of such wheels ? Stiffness ? Aero gains ? Not weight apparently 

I've ordered an XC wheelset for a build, from lightbicycle with their carbon spokes, on normal hubs.
I look forward to see how this looks, weight and ride.

[Sebastian]

These remind me of the Spengle carbon monocoque MTB wheels. Those were a thing in the 90s, but they never really caught on.
The company and its wheels have been revived recently, however.

Yeah, I don't really see the point of these.
For gravel, IMO the rim dimensions are almost too narrow and dated.
They might be more durable. But then again, I think a properly built and tensioned spoked wheelset will be just as bulletproof and lighter at the same time.
The only thing I can see is that there might be an aero gain, depending on the spoke's cross section. But is that really something you're looking for in a gravel bike? Particularly of you're running huge tires anyway?
And, wheels like these will probably be incredibly stiff under pedal load.