snookanglr

I’m a enthusiast rider and not an USA Cycling member although I do participate in unsanctioned races, “spirited” group rides, and charity events. I’m 5’9” and 152 pounds. This is my first set of carbon wheels so I don’t have anything to compare them too except the numerous sets of stock alloy wheels that I’ve ridden and one set of upgrades (Bontrager Race Lite TLR). I spent at least a year researching and deciding what set of wheels to buy. I went back and forth on the price, the brand, and if I wanted full carbon. I eventually decided that I didn’t care about the brand. Price and quality were the main factors and if I was going to do this I wanted to get the real thing; full carbon and deep(ish) rims.

I don’t know how I even become aware of November but I quickly took a liking to them by what they say on their very active blog. I’d never seen such honesty, bluntness, and straightforwardness in someone selling a product. They’re completely up front about everything and no BS. It’s refreshing and rare to see this. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen these qualities to such an extent in any other manufacturer. Their blog also provides a ton of helpful and informative information and it’s not just about their products.

Once I started following their blog I started paying attention to reviews and write-ups on the wheels. There aren’t many of those out there which is why I’m doing this review. I also finally found a cycling acquaintance who rides a set of Rail 52s and he loves them so that emboldened me to make a purchase. So I made my decision as was planning to purchase in April 2016 for my birthday and then November ran a pre-order special in January. They rarely run deals since they’re already priced so low so I had to jump on the offer. My birthday came early. The wheels arrived in March already taped, with very nice skewers, and two packs of brake pads. The set of pads that came with the wheels are Black Prince and then a few weeks later they sent another type of pads for free with the explanation that these work better. November wants you to install the new pads, and I will eventually, but the Black Princes are working great so I’m in no hurry to make the swap. I got the Rails with the White Industries T11 hubs in black. What’s weird is that I ordered the Nimbus hubs. What I think happened is that about a month after I’d placed my order they started running a special where instead of Nimbus hubs you could substitute T11s in the color of your choice. However, I was never notified about that and I thought it was optional. I would have been totally fine with the Nimbus hubs (they’re basically T11s) but either by mistake or design they gave me T11s in black which happens to be my favorite hub color. Whatever the reason for the “mistake”, it was a bonus for me.

Setup was pretty easy even for someone with limited skills such as myself. First, I installed an 11-speed Ultegra cog. The wheels come with two spacers which you won’t need if you’re running 11 speed. Then I installed tires. First I tried to install Hutchinson tires even though November warns you that Hutchinsons are a difficult fit. But I’m stubborn and had to see if they were right about that. One of my Hutchinsons went on easily. It’s a 23mm Hutchinson Equinox 2, a crappy stock tire that already had 750 miles on it so it was well stretched. The other Hutchinson tire, a 25mm Intensive Long Distance, was new and impossible to get on the rim. Well maybe with an epic struggle it would have gone on eventually but I didn’t want to try that hard. So I put on one of my trusty 23mm Continental Grand Prix which was a snap. I also had to install valve extenders. I experimented with three brands and settled on the Continental Conti Valve Extenders which work wonderfully. Save yourself some trouble and just buy these. They come in numerous sizes, are easy to use, don’t rattle and only cost about $12. My only wish is that they came in black. I think during the purchase process November offers valve extenders at a reasonable price and I’m curious to know which ones they sell. If anyone knows please let me know. The last part of the setup and this is a big thing, was SURPRISE these rims are too big for my brakes. Once I got the wheels on my bike they wouldn’t spin because there wasn’t enough clearance between the calipers. I have (or had) Reparto Corse RC-471 Alloy brakes on my 2014 Bianchi Intenso which are a rebranded FSA product and they wouldn’t open wide enough to let the wheels spin. I guess this is what can happen with a rim that’s 25mm at the brake track. So I took my bike and wheels to my LBS and they confirmed that I needed new brakes if I wanted to use these wheels. This was no biggie to me. The stock brakes on my Bianchi aren’t very good and new brakes was on my list of upgrades. The upgrade just happened sooner than I expected. So I bought a pair of Shimano Ultegra 6800 Brake Calipers (on sale, score!) and they work fine with these wheels. They are also much nicer brakes in general and I’m happy to have them. However, even these brakes don’t give you a lot of wiggle room. I guess this is the price we must pay for this new wider rim “trend”. And speaking of that, here’s proof that November was in on the “wider is better” thing early on.

So now I have the wheels installed and I’ve been riding them for six months. I’ve done a lot of training rides and a fast 70 mile competitive group ride. Where I live in SW Florida it’s completely flat so the only downhill has been on bridges where the speed is usually only 30-40 mph. Also, the descents are so short that you don’t often need to use your brakes. Nonetheless, I think I got enough braking in to get a feel for how braking is with these wheels.

So here are my impressions. Let’s start with what’s least important but something we all pay a lot of attention to nonetheless, aesthetics. These wheels look awesome. I don’t need to explain this to you, you can see photos but they do look even better in person. Also,the hubs make a nice sound. Again, not important (to some) but I like a noisy hub to warn riders that I’m approaching from behind and just because I think they sound cool. The aero spokes are very nice and I think the rims are the perfect depth. I wouldn’t want them any deeper but I also even more so wouldn’t want them any shallower. I think this is why November phased out the Rail 32 wheelset. What’s the point of getting a carbon rim that shallow? Like I said earlier, if you’re going to spend the money get the real deal.

They also handle great in the wind. No problems whatsoever with the wind which was a relief to me. We may not have hills here in SW Florida but we lots of wind. It blows off the Gulf of Mexico hard for about 5 months and because of that I was concerned about how the wind would affect these wheels. The answer is it doesn’t. My first ride on these wheels was a day so windy I normally would have stayed home but I figured I might as well test my new wheels in some of the windiest conditions. Riding the Rails in high winds was better than my alloy clinchers. It was easier to ride into a headwind and I flew with the tailwind and set several PRs. I was only briefly affected by the crosswinds once and that was on a 35 mph bridge descent where I would have been affected on my alloy clinchers as well. It was just a brief grabbing of the front wheel by the wind that I was easily able to control. I didn’t think it would be the case but these wheels actually perform BETTER in the wind than any of my other wheels.

Braking with carbon feels a little different and makes a lot of noise but I always felt in control and didn’t have any issues. Like I said earlier though, you don’t use brakes much around here and I rarely ride in wet conditions so I may never really truly test the braking of these rims.

Am I faster on these wheels? Yes but not in a mind blowing way, not that I was expecting that to happen anyways. However, I did set several PRs on Strava segments on my first ride. I think a lot of newbies have the misconception that a hot new bike or a set or carbon rims is going to instantly up their average speed. That doesn’t happen, at least not in a huge way. I’m a tad bit faster overall with these wheels but it’s negligible. What does happen is that you’re sometimes faster in certain situations or conditions. More importantly, what I noticed with these wheels was having to exert less effort to maintain high speeds. I think that’s the aerodynamics and better power transfer coming into play. On the 70 mile group ride our average speed was 20.8 mph which is typical for me on a ride like that but what wasn’t typical was the effort I had to put forth to get that. I was able to roll at 25mph feeling like I was putting out the watts to achieve 21 mph. Of course a power meter would allow me to quantify this but my legs could tell. Normally in the last 10 miles of a long fast ride I’m cramping and can’t pedal out of the saddle. I didn’t have these issues this time. Also, the Rails just roll a hell of a lot better than any wheel I’ve use. So yes these wheels are definitely faster but be realistic in your expectations.

Now for my only complaint and I don’t think this is a complaint unique to November Rail 52s. I think it’s probably common to all carbon wheels. Road chatter is very much increased. There’s definitely a harsher road feel. Every little bump is amplified and there’s more noise and vibration in my headset and handlebar area. That’s the price you pay for increased stiffness and better power transfer. Because of this I switched from a 23mm tire on front to an IRC Aspite Pro 26mm tire in front and things vastly improved. The wider tire adds cushioning. When my back tire wears out I’ll upsize that one too. So I wouldn’t recommend 23mm tires with these wheels but that’s fine because that size is dying out anyways. I’m also going to try these wheels tubeless eventually and I’m sure that will smooth things out even more. Yes another great aspect of these wheels is that they are tubeless ready. The November guys are fans of tubeless. I run my mtn bike wheels tubeless and the only reason I haven’t tried it on my road bike yet is that I don’t get many flats.

The bottom line is that these wheels are most likely the best deal out there. They’re priced so low that it probably scares some people off. But do your research and you’ll learn what they are. For $1385 you’re getting a set of proprietary, tubeless-ready, full carbon rims with White Industries hubs and Sapim CX-Ray spokes that look awesome. They also throw in skewers and brake pads and if you catch them at the right time you might also get free shipping. They’re fast, durable, and fantastic in the wind and I would definitely pay more for them. It seems laughable to buy a similar (or lesser quality) wheelset that costs twice as much just because it has a big name brand on it. Personally I prefer the stealth approach and I like the fact that not many people know about the wheels I’m running. It’s fun when they ask me about them and occasionally someone is familiar with them and I’m impressed. However, I don’t see these wheels staying underground forever. They’re just too good and too affordable to not get more popular. I recommend buying them right now. I’ll be buying a set for one of my other bikes.

.SG

Great review and glad to hear you're enjoying your purchase. The Rails look awesome and I've only heard good things about them. I've been following November for a while now and told myself that I would purchase an alloy wheelset from them once I lost 10 lbs since carbon just isn't in the budget this year. Well, I'm down the weight now but I think I'll hold out and see if they have a free shipping (to Canada) event in the near future before I finally pull the trigger.

Happy riding!

gregf83 

Either your fitness improved or there's a placebo effect going on. About the most you could expect from aero wheels is .5mph.

Wheever

I love November as a company. I've been waiting since the spring for them to start taking pre-orders for their new disc rim called the Range. And now they have! Yay! But now I don't have the money. Boo!

Great review. Thanks for writing it! Supported everything I'd already heard about those wheels.