dimethi

Hi all,

Recently purchased a new carbon wheelset and I see there are a lot of pockets in the rim bed. Is this something that should be warrantied, or are they just cosmetic issues? Not sure if they only exist on the outermost layer or if it's likely voids exist in the middle layers; I won't be able to x-ray them until a few weeks later. I've included a link to the album as well as attached a picture inline.

Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks!

Album: https://imgur.com/a/0Rbduxf

WhyFi

I wouldn't be happy with that. What did the manufacturer say? Who is the manufacturer?

dimethi

It's definitely not what I expected either, I haven't seen anything like it on my other wheels. Manufacturer is Speeder Cycling, they provided the rims to Winspace for their Hyper lineup.

BenBoozer

I have a carbon set from Light Bicycle and while they may not top end wheels, they have zero visible imperfections. Love em.

vespasianus

That is not good. Air pockets in carbon are bad and points of failure. Send them back.

dimethi

Manufacturer response: "The small voids in the rim bed are normal, it won't affect the durability. Most of other factories will paint the rim bed to cover the voids but it will add the weights and improve nothing, so we prefer to keep the rim bed natural when it comes out from the mold. Our rim bed is shaped by filament wound processing, so it is much stronger than others. It exists on the top layer only where we pull out the mandrel."

I plan on having the wheels x-ray'd and will update if it turns out to be bogus.

rubiksoval

The top layer is aesthetic anyway. I wouldn't worry about it since you'll never see it once the rim tape, tube, and tire go on.

The bit about it being a point of failure is hilariously ridiculous.

Sy Reene

Ask Hambini; he'll know.

jaxgtr

Go to the 1 min mark.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET1jRVynOBA

aclinjury

these wheels are using filament wound? That's a different construction technique then most carbon wheels on the market.
But I'm not implying one way or another that filament wound wheels naturally have these holes.
Having said that, voids in carbons are over stated IMO. You're not going to get a perfect carbon frame/wheels without any void., you just don't at the level of construction employed by the bicycle industry. I have/and still am riding a carbon tubular wheel that has a 1cm crack on the side of the brake track. I've have been riding it for over a year now and the crack has not grown one bit. I doubt that those small voids on a rim bed will come anywhere close the stress force that a 1cm crack on the brack track will see. On my MTB, I've als put a small crack on one of the carbon wheels right on the side of the rim at the brake track too (when i hit a rock hard), but I just JB Weldit it and still raling on that MTB today. Personally, I would not worry about the voids on your rim one bit.

rubiksoval

No.

Again. The top layer is cosmetic, not structural.

rubiksoval

Same. I have a front Zipp 404. Cracked at the top of the brake track from a pot hole and runs all through to the spoke hole. I can feel the spot when braking, but hasn't changed a bit in five years.