epdarks

So the story goes that these wheels came from a HED employee's personal stash. I'm told they are essentially a prototype wheel, or were built during some kind of testing phase for HED. They are track spacing. They do have spokes internally. Possibly made from the wider C2 rim however it could just be the rim tape. Obviously the design is pretty strange. They appear to have a 3 spoke design for the traditional carbon layup and then what I'll call a "kevlar" look for the centers of the 3 spokes. No 2 sides of either wheel are the same. The rear is setup for bolts and the front is setup for skewer.

Anyways, just wondering if anyone has seen these before. I'm fully aware that they're ugly. I'm also aware that riding these on the street is ******g stupid. Onto the pics...

veganbikes

Did you purchase them from a HED employee or is this a second/third/fourth/fifth hand story? It could be true but it certainly looks quite sloppy and I would doubt HED would put their logo decals on something like that. I wouldn't ride them anyway not just the looks but a questionable backstory and them possibly being prototypes just doesn't lead to a wheel I would feel safe on.

epdarks

They did not come from a HED employee, but I got them from a local who has been involved in cycling for his entire life and is well connected in the Minneapolis community. According to him, a HED employee saw the wheels at a swap meet and verified they were legitimate HEDs and the story lined up. HED is located just a few minutes from us so it makes sense that the wheels would be nearby. We do end up with a surplus of HED in our used market. Also, our velodrome just got shut down last year so maybe people are purging their track parts.

Could all be a bunch of hot air but it just doesn't feel like a re-badged Chinese wheel, to me anyway. I'll try to run them by an LBS locally to confirm they're at least quality enough to ride. Thanks for your input, it's definitely possible that they're fakes.

Ymerej

The only place I would roll those wheels would be straight into a dumpster, haha sorry to be like that but it looks like a paper mache project in 3rd grade class. I would never risk my life on those things. Prototype or not who cares, pitch em quick. Just saved your life😎

abshipp 

I'm very intrigued by these. Regarding the spokes inside, from your pictures of the rear wheel it looks like all the spokes run along the inside of the flange, can you tell if they are crossed on the inside? I'm wondering what is being used to transfer the torsional load from the cog to the rim. Traditionally that's the trailing spokes' job but I wonder if there's some kind of hybrid system going on here. All the spokes on one side seems to imply radial lacing which does a terrible job at transferring torque.

If you decide that you don't want to ride them, I'd love to see what's inside!

If anything, you might get some funky hub parts to keep on your desk

Also, regarding their safety, I'm not sure I would trust the front blindly, but as for the rear...I would have a hard time not throwing it on for a quick little spin. It's just the rear wheel, a failure probably won't be that big of a deal... Just wear a helmet and run a front brake

Speedway2

I'd be cautious just hanging them and using them as wall ornaments. Looks like a lack of QC in that build......

epdarks

They do cross, and the spokes to connect to both sides of the hub. Also, the hub has a HED logo. Did my best to take some photos.

I've been told that these carbon discs from HED do not rely on the carbon for any structural strength but rather simply aerodynamic gain. I know it's possible to remove the carbon and end up with a normal functioning aluminum wheel, at least on some of the HED products.

veganbikes

I wouldn't think it was a re-badged Chinese wheel more like a someone made it in their garage. However I would love to hear it is an actual HED wheel and that would be kind of neat but it just looks so bad but maybe that lends legitimacy. I would be careful riding them regardless.

abshipp 

Ah gotcha! What I meant by the spokes on only one side is that the spokes ran only on the inside of the hub flange.

Thanks for the detail

ZIPP2001

I've run HED tri spokes forever and that looks like they could be a proto type design that they did. I though I saw a wheel very close to this design but in a finished state at a tri I was marshaling few year back. It was a tri / disc combo on steroids.