BITRANZ BIKE 80mm Carbon Rim review upgrade from old Fulcrum Red Wind H.80

[don]

Hi guys thought I'd post my DIY experience upgrading my old Fulcrum Red Wind H.80 which had a 22mm outer rim width, which I ended up using as a donor wheel (hub and spokes) see photos below. I checked out a number of wheel suppliers like Timetec, Mostsport, Light Bicycle, etc., but settled on BRITranz due to the 34mm rim width they were able to provide. They were able to fully customise the spoke holes to 16 radial with no holes on the outer rim so ready for tubeless. The lady I dealt with was Cathy who was really helpful and was able to provide specs exactly to what was required.

So full specs as follows:
Depth 80mm
Rim width 28mm outer
Internal 23mm
Widest point 34mm
16 hole radial
Engraved brake track
Rim weight measured as ~620g
Rim cost $225USD + shipping

So far I've ridden 2 x 90k tt and 40km TT plus 30km or so warmup and the wheel has held up well and feels very fast with the conti aero 111 29c tire set up as tubeless and running ~67psi, measures 30mm on the BITRANZ rim. I was first in my age group off the bike in IM70.3 Melbourne on a windy course so the wheel is definitely fast as I am no power house on the bike.

My only negative is that the spoke hole angle could have been slightly more angled in to put less strain on the spokes but doesn't seem to cause any issues. Otherwise I was able to get the wheel near perfectly true with just a tiny bit of run out in one spot, maybe 0.5mm, well within tollerances. So all up it was a cheap way to modernise a really old wheel. Note the Fulcrum wheel had hardly been used so hub bearings were still excellent. Also being able to reuse the Fulcrum bladed spokes was nice. All I did was replace the spoke nipples with ones from BITRANZ.

[don]

Just thought I'd given an update on my 80mm BITRANZ carbon rim. Still going strong and still remaining true (slight run out as before) despite hitting a few pot holes in some of the races. Probably has about 400km on it now with the Aero 111 front tire. Works well but do notice a little bit of buffeting with side winds up to 20-30 km/h but that's expected with the deeper front wheel.

Only issue i'm having is the OEM red campag carbon rim brake pads are a bit grabby/pulsating under heavy braking, although not really an issue on a flat TT.
I did have to shave these to get the wide rim to fit so might just need to try some new low profile carbon rim brake pads so if anyone has any recommendations let me know.

[BigMold]

I hadn't heard of this seller before but their lineup is very interesting for me since they offer to put a brake track on a lot of their rims, first time I'm seeing more modern rim widths and shapes with a brake track . Since rim brake is very niche for modern bikes there are not many options around and the few that are usually tap out at 28mm external at the widest point and even 21mm internal is rare. I'll look into getting a set of 30mm ex/23 int rims next week. Cheers

[don]

Yeah 28 mm rim width for rim brake is getting pretty wide and most rim brake bikes can only fit 26c tires anyway. I've squeezed in a rear 28c Conti GP TT TR on my old Focus Izalco Crono, measures about 30mm on 22mm inner, but there is only about a 2mm gap, but the solid disc wheel stays very true and is stiff so doesn't seem to be an issue with any rubbing as long as I get it perfectly centred. The painful thing is adjusting the rim v brakes every time I change back to my training wheels which are quite narrow at 24mm external vs my race wheels at 28mm.

Another thing to note is BITRANZ appears to spec the rim width at the rim edge rather than widest point. I am looking at a new wheelset for my disc brake road bike and their 32mm width is actually 34mm at the widest point, ie., toroidal shape, which is nice for aerodynamics if running 32c tires. I'm pretty sure they do even wider gravel style wheelsets. It's also nice that they customise with no spoke holes which IMO is nice for running tubeless.