vicente33

Bladex carbon clincher 38mm wheelset review

My purpose about this review it's just to share the riding experience with the Chinese wheelset, before the purchase I did a lot of research on Chinese sellers like Farsport, Light-bicycle, Yoeleo and Bladex Bicycle, finally I choose Bladex wheels mostly because of their ceramic bearings and their basalt brakes, as I heard a lot about the braking issue and I’m really interested in the ceramic bearings.

I hope this information can be useful to those who are in searching for a affordable carbon wheelset as I was.


I use this wheels both for training and racing, but i use training wheels too.

Wheelset Specs:
- Weight: Front 652g, Rear 811g; 1463g;
- Spokes: Pillar aero;
- Hubs: Ceramic Bearings;
- Rim: Basalt Breaking surface;
- Drilling: 20front, 24Rear.

Rider weight: 65Kg
Tyres: Continental GP4000 S
Brake pads: BBB Carbstop( so good as the original)

Build quality:
So far I'm fairly impressed with the build. Wheels were true out of the box and remain true despite sometimes Roubaix like road conditions. The brake surface remains like new and the stopping as well. After near 5000Km what impresses me is the wheels and the bearings looks like new.

Hubs:
The hubs do not have some brand but they are what impress me most, they are smooth as a feder and continue after all that Kilometers, i think the stiffness of the wheels came from those hubs too because when you sprint it feels amazingly stiff and smooth at the same time.

Braking:
After doing +/- 5000km i can say that is a long term review and i can say don's worry about braking if you use a good brake pads like Swissstop or bbb Carbstop it's almost like aluminum rim, and brake track doesn't seem to have any sign of wear. But attention if you come from aluminum you need to adapt first, the braking pads take long( like milliseconds more) to actuate but when it does it brake very well. So an emergency stop has to be trained or get used to this braking (basalt braking).

Braking in the wet:
Here i can say that all carbon rims are equal nut does not lost much for aluminum, but is a little bit weaker than aluminum, but for me was never a problem when i needed they brake.

Aero Qualities and Sidewinds:
In this point and beginning with sidewinds i can say that is no problem, and never experienced a problem, must be for these wheels are 38mm but they are very good in gusty winds as i experienced.
The aero qualities are enormous compared with non-aero rim and have a good feeling after you put the speed on.

Cornering and ride quality:
Theres only one way to say about cornering and is that they make feel safe and flying down descents and i think that i own it to them stiffness it's really a good sensation, like you can push your limits.
The ride quality is very nice, they are carbon wheels and are stiff so they are a little harsh but it's normal and feel good because you know that you have a pretty good wheels under you.

Other Statements:
I can say that are a pretty good wheels, it's a excellent choice when you have a tight budget and when these wheels are almost so good as a Zipp or a Mavic carbon wheelset and for the price i made a very good deal, because they are like Zipp or Mavic, a top wheelset.

After 5000Km that i ride some bad roads like Sterrato, Pave, in the rain and training a lot of time with them they are very nice in every points like spoke tension, brake surface and hubs they feel like new.

And due to the lightweight they climb like hell, but on flat because they are 38mm it's not easy to get to high speed but when you get it, it became very easy.

Theres are some photos and my Strava profile is:´Miguel Vicente´.

Thanks for reading!