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Gravel rims- Light Bicycle maybe?

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Gravel rims- Light Bicycle maybe?

Old 07-30-20, 09:26 AM
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Chandne
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Gravel rims- Light Bicycle maybe?

I'm thinking getting a new carbon gravel wheelset and was thinking of those Light Bicycle rims with either Dt 240 or 350 hubs. Are the rims high quality, as in durable, stiff laterally, and compliant? Anyone use them? Maybe these:

https://www.lightbicycle.com/29er-di...vel-bikes.html

I'd prefer a slightly shallower rim for some compliance but then I'll have to go narrower in internal width too. I'll mainly run tires in the 35-40 range only. These will be 80% gravel and 20% road. I have dedicated road bikes so mostly gravel with road mainly to connect gravel/dirt stretches. Thanks for any input!
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Old 07-30-20, 09:57 AM
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Those should be great for your intended purpose. I'd go with the WR38 for the wider internal width, but that's me. FWIW, I've got two sets of carbon wheels nearly identical in build from BTLOS and Nextie built up with Sapim CX Ray spokes and straight pull DT350's that I use for both road and gravel (Conti GP5k TL for road) various WTB tires for gravel and both have been bulletproof. I'd expect the same from an LB build.
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Old 07-30-20, 10:27 AM
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I'm looking at similar rims and wondering if that width (29mm outer, 22mm inner) is "too wide" for 28mm road tires? I'd like the ability to swap tires and run GP5k on them as well as wider gravel/CX tires.
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Old 07-30-20, 12:20 PM
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The 38 looks good too. I'll have to give this some thought. I just don't want too deep a wheel since I want some compliance on those gravel rides. Since I will likely never go bigger than 40, either of those will will. Inner width of 22 is a bit on the narrow side and 25/26 would square the tire better. I worry about the tire bead falling away from the rim bead in case of seriously low pressure but that would likely happen only with narrow road tires, I suppose. It did happen with my NOX rims (21 inner width and tubeless 23s. I think it happened with 25s as well.
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Old 07-31-20, 07:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Chandne
I'm thinking getting a new carbon gravel wheelset and was thinking of those Light Bicycle rims with either Dt 240 or 350 hubs. Are the rims high quality, as in durable, stiff laterally, and compliant? Anyone use them? Maybe these:

https://www.lightbicycle.com/29er-di...vel-bikes.html

I'd prefer a slightly shallower rim for some compliance but then I'll have to go narrower in internal width too. I'll mainly run tires in the 35-40 range only. These will be 80% gravel and 20% road. I have dedicated road bikes so mostly gravel with road mainly to connect gravel/dirt stretches. Thanks for any input!
Compliant? They're carbon bike rims. They're rigid when unlaced and very strong when laced.

I have a set of CX46 rims from LB laced to Onyx Racing hubs. Love them. Very unreactive in crosswinds for the cross section and most tubeless I've tried (29er x 38mm-50mm) work pretty well in seating.
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Old 07-31-20, 08:20 PM
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Good to hear. Carbon can be laterally very stiff but vertical compliance can be tuned very well. My Enve MTB rims were stiff and a bit harsh but I talked to Knight when they were working on a stiff but slightly compliant rim. I eventually got those and they are amazing. Now I hear Enve is building rims they say are much more compliant than their older ones. I'll keep looking at the LB ones since I think I need some MTB ones too, for my new bike.
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Old 07-31-20, 09:50 PM
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Originally Posted by Chandne
Good to hear. Carbon can be laterally very stiff but vertical compliance can be tuned very well. My Enve MTB rims were stiff and a bit harsh but I talked to Knight when they were working on a stiff but slightly compliant rim. I eventually got those and they are amazing. Now I hear Enve is building rims they say are much more compliant than their older ones. I'll keep looking at the LB ones since I think I need some MTB ones too, for my new bike.
Rims aren't "compliant". They either hold a shape under load or they don't. Differences are down to the tires you run and the pressure you use and how it relates to your body weight.

A tire like a GK SK 43mm is not at all supple, for example. At the other extreme are Rene Herse.


Carbon rims are rather easy to build--because they are very very true even unlaced, and are consistently so. Further LB's in particular use very high spoke tension, I think the CX46's I have were recommended for 125KGF +/-5 by LB themselves. Result is a very strong wheel capable of holding very heavy loads when built with quality hubs and spokes. All the "compliance" talk in rims is IMO marketing and placebo or falsely attributing tires to rims.

Last edited by Marcus_Ti; 07-31-20 at 09:56 PM.
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Old 08-03-20, 08:34 PM
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Originally Posted by Chandne
Good to hear. Carbon can be laterally very stiff but vertical compliance can be tuned very well. My Enve MTB rims were stiff and a bit harsh but I talked to Knight when they were working on a stiff but slightly compliant rim. I eventually got those and they are amazing. Now I hear Enve is building rims they say are much more compliant than their older ones. I'll keep looking at the LB ones since I think I need some MTB ones too, for my new bike.
Seems like Enve is trying to achieve the ride of a good aluminum rim now at the price of carbon?

I have a set of Reynolds carbon rims and three sets of Aluminum rims (Easton EA09,. American Classic, DT Swiss 1800). They are close enough in weight and honestly I do not see enough added value in the carbon rims to justify the extra expense... For gravel where you want some compliance and you have rocks bouncing agains the rim often enough, I think Aluminum is the ticket.
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Old 08-04-20, 11:30 AM
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I have the Light Bicycle AR28 rims with DT Swiss 240 hubs and xray spokes.

Last edited by tdilf; 08-04-20 at 11:33 AM.
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Old 08-05-20, 07:27 AM
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Originally Posted by Chandne
I'd prefer a slightly shallower rim for some compliance but then I'll have to go narrower in internal width too.
Have you ever ridden a bike with wide rims? I highly recommend going with as wide of a rim as possible, which in your case would be the WR38 series if your bike has disc brakes. When setup tubeless, a wide rim offers noticeable comfort and improved control over a narrow rim, especially when running wider tires. I speak from experience as I have Bontrager 3V wheels on my Trek Domane and the rims have a 25mm internal width. I didn't think I'd like the wheels but after a few months of riding on them on asphalt and gravel with tubeless tires, I won't go back to narrow rims.
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Old 08-05-20, 10:16 AM
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Yeah, I am a mountain biker running 40 mm internal width rims so I have some experience with wide rims. I don't particularly want anything less than 24 mm on my gravel bike but I am still researching. I have a lot going on in life right now to deal with so I'm not being my usually decisive and impulsive self, but am taking my time to figure everything out.

Originally Posted by PoorInRichfield
Have you ever ridden a bike with wide rims? I highly recommend going with as wide of a rim as possible, which in your case would be the WR38 series if your bike has disc brakes. When setup tubeless, a wide rim offers noticeable comfort and improved control over a narrow rim, especially when running wider tires. I speak from experience as I have Bontrager 3V wheels on my Trek Domane and the rims have a 25mm internal width. I didn't think I'd like the wheels but after a few months of riding on them on asphalt and gravel with tubeless tires, I won't go back to narrow rims.
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Old 08-06-20, 06:23 AM
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I have WR45s, hookless with 25mm internal width. They’re great rims, super easy to setup tubeless and I can still change a tire without levers, good quality. I’m very happy with LB for gravel wheels
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Old 08-11-20, 03:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Chandne
I'm thinking getting a new carbon gravel wheelset and was thinking of those Light Bicycle rims with either Dt 240 or 350 hubs. Are the rims high quality, as in durable, stiff laterally, and compliant? Anyone use them? Maybe these:

https://www.lightbicycle.com/29er-di...vel-bikes.html

I'd prefer a slightly shallower rim for some compliance but then I'll have to go narrower in internal width too. I'll mainly run tires in the 35-40 range only. These will be 80% gravel and 20% road. I have dedicated road bikes so mostly gravel with road mainly to connect gravel/dirt stretches. Thanks for any input!
I've got a few of these. I'd go for the 36mm over the 28s as they'd make a better road rim as their 2nd use. The AR series is good for 25/28 aero-wise and the WR is good for 28/32. The increased depth will make them stiffer too.

As far as quality/durability/stiffness - the rim itself feels overbuilt. They are rocks. I've got an DT Swiss 32mm deep road disc and a 25mm deep gravel disc aluminum rim/wheel, and the carbon rims are WAY more substantial. The 32 and 25mm deep AL rims feel about the same in hand despite the shape, width, and depth differences.
Compliance doesn't come from the rim, that'd be spoke tension. If you feel compliance from your wheelset on a modern bike, something is very wrong as the tire, seatpost, and bars are way less complaint than the rims. From 1800 thru 1993(?), most rims were super shallow, steel or aluminum rims that were super bendable and used lots o spokes at low tension to manage that. Now they are not, and you wouldn't look to the wheel for any compliance. https://blog.silca.cc/part-3-tire-pressure-and-comfort
Spoke angle and rim depth matter for lateral stiffness, but generally everything is fine now.

For gravel, just get the DT350s as a few grams of weight - especially at the hub isn't going to make a difference. Save some money and get the Pillar spokes too. Bang up those wheels and fix what is broken.

Last edited by jfranci3; 08-11-20 at 04:02 PM.
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