Here is a copy paste of the review of my wheels from weight weenies (
https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=177489). I know its not what @kubackje is asking for and its a spec I am not sure many would order--and ive had the wheels for 6 months, which right now feels like an eternity.
Intro:
Hi all--about 4 6 months ago, faced with the prospect of potential tariffs, I pulled the trigger on a set of wheels that I was very curious about. These were delivered after about 1 week. These were bought as a complete wheelset and are a custom build. The breakdown was ~$825 for the wheels, and the rest was for duties and shipping. Pricing will vary, and I expect things to have changed since I ordered given the current environment.
I did wait until I had a decent amount of mileage (~1500mi) on these so I could offer some complete thoughts despite not getting to the aero testing I was hoping to do by now.
Overview:
Specs:
- 50mm deep front, selected for compatibility with the conti Aero 111. Measured by me, this rim is 24mm IW, 31mm at the hooks and 34mm at the widest point. Front wheel weighs 565g, Rim should be ~400g.
- 60mm deep rear, selected for compatibility GP5000 S TR 28mm rear. Measured by me, this rim is 23.5mm IW, 30mm at the hooks and ~31mm at the widest point. Rear wheel weighs 701g, Rim should weigh ~440g.
- Weight, untaped, no valves = 1266g
- Weight taped + Tyrewiz + tires installed + Galfer road wave rotors (160mm front, 140mm rear) + Ti rotor bolts = 2000g
- Sapim CXray Super spokes, internal 3.2mm square nipples
- THR Industries R3 Hubs: 6 bolt, 21H front, 24H rear, XDR freehub
Reason for buying:
- Curiosity about the hubs. These wheels use THR Industries R3 hubs. I wanted to sample the Rx hubs, but they were unavailable then. They are available now, but the R3 costs much less and results in a similar "system" weight. THR Industries is a Chinese brand whose products are not commonly seen in the USA where I am.
- I wanted to try something new and wanted to know if it was possible to spec a wheel that took advantage of the Aero 111 to perform similar to my current road wheelset (Ascent Polaris 69mm) at a lower weight. Due to various circumstances, such as less riding than I would like this winter and because it's been pretty windy here, I haven't done any of the "Chunging" I wanted to do to see how close I got.
Hub and Rim details:
There are a couple of things to note.
- The hubs require preload adjustment and they have collars to help with this. There is no negative or positive difference IMO between them and a "self adjusting" hub, e.g., DT Swiss; it's just something to keep in mind.
- The photos show that they achieve low weight by using a conical ratchet ring integrated into the freehub. My particular wheelset has these made of Ti. It's different but similar to the NonPlus / Princeton hubs tied up in litigation. This includes the design of the freehub seal. I tried to understand the scope of that IP to see if there were any obvious issues there, but I was unable to learn anything about that IP, so I have no idea.
- The hubs themselves weigh ~240g per set
- The R3 is only available as 6-bolt. My understanding is that it's cheaper than the Rx because the 6-bolt-specific design allows for the use of a more affordable alloy than what is used in the center lock-only Rx
Detailed thoughts on the rims:
- The rims are hooked.
- It's worth noting that the 60mm rear rim is technically out of spec in that the 23.5mm internal is a lot wider than the 23mm nominal the rims had as a spec when I ordered them.
- Both rims include a small bead lock feature. The tires stay on the beads when fully deflated. This is an important convienence feature for me since I run tubeless tires.
- Installing the tires was easy, and while I can get them on without using a tire lever, it's not easy. They did inflate with and pop on the rims with no drama. All I used was a Silca Pista Classic pump; no compressor or electric inflator was required. I used a single wrap of DT Swiss rim tape.
- These use an "ultralight" t800 layup. There is a T1000 layup for a slightly wider 25mm IW rim set and they are about 30-40g lighter for a set of rims at the same depth. However, these layups were brand new at the time of ordering and discussing with other suppliers it seemed like there are a lot more quality issues particularly on deeper rims for those lighter layups, so I chose to stick with a layup that was not quite as new and because I wanted to stick within ETRTO guidelines for tire / rim compatibility, for which a 29mm tire on a 25mm IW rim is both in spec by charts and out of spec by rules. Given how I ride, I don't want to mess with a potential safety issue.
Ride impressions.
- These are wheels and after 1500mi+ of riding it has reminded me that going from one set of reasonably nice wheels to another is marginal in the greater scheme of bike setup. It's certainly a much smaller difference than my change to narrow handlebars..
- The Aero 111 works as they have been crosswind stable for me.
- I suspect they are a few aero watts slower than the Ascent Polaris 69mm, having ridden them back-to-back, but I don't know, not having been able to measure them properly. It's certainly not a noticeable difference. No idea if the attention paid to profiles and running internal nipples on fewer steel spokes has really helped close the gap or not.
- The reduction in weight once everything is installed is over 500g vs that wheelset. Some of that is in the difference between the Sram Centerline X center lock vs. Galfer 6-bolt rotors, but 500g is massive and noticeable particularly when just riding along. I find it less noticeable when doing intervals or hard efforts, and despite the change in feel I would probably defer to results from testing to pick between this wheelset and the Ascents.
- The noise when freewheeling on these is insanely loud. Much louder than DT swiss 54t ratchets. I tried using some DT grease to quiet it down and it didn't help. Just something to be aware of.
- The front wheel did come out of true after hitting a pothole after about 1000mi of riding. Given they use internal nipples this was a bit of a pain, but I took me a few minutes to fix this and they have stayed true for an additional 500 mi or so.
Bit about me to round out this review. I do some gravel racing and the odd fondo, but would generally say I don't road race. My weight varies between 56-59kg and ftp usually in the 270w-ish range getting as high as 280 when i was really motivated. This is a pic of the bike used.
Overall, I am really happy with these wheels and feel like the value is pretty good, especially for those of us still on the fence about carbon spokes.
There is also some stuff about rim selection that I left out and theoretical aero shapes for the rim profile and why i went with an older Toroidal shape instead of the weight optimized, newer shapes for the front rim; but overall I am still really happy with these wheels and hope to wrap the aero testing this week.
You can find an album with the photos meant to accompany this review here:
https://imgur.com/a/dfs-wheels-qqaUyqe
