Has anyone put any time on the eBay China-carbon $350 dollar carbon track wheels? How about secondhand opinions on 'em?

That's like saying, "Has anyone tried hamburgers? How are they?" :D

It depends on the source. There are dozens if not hundreds of merchants on eBay selling carbon wheels. Do you have any in particular in mind? Links?

Some have them at T-town. Some have complained about the hubs. Some end up saying that they will need buy buy a set of FFWD & Zipp wheels. I would recommend gettin a set of wheels with alloy rims and decent hubs or spend the extra bucks for a known brand. Velomine usual has a good selection of decently priced alloy rim track wheels.

Well yeah, HAS anyone tried hamburgers? Guys, I need opinions here. :-p

I get caught up because there are dozen of merchants that have near, or completely identical products (and photos!). I was looking at some of the 60mm tubulars, like these: 60mm Tubular Track Carbon Wheelset Fixed Gear Carbon Wheels | eBay

I got my Deep-V wheels from them below cost from our distributor. To say I was surprised is an understatement.

I got some for my sweetheart this past year. Let's see - surprisingly decent finish on the rims. The spokeholes had offset drilling. There was a nice channel in the rim bed for a tire's seam. The hubs are nothing special and that's fine because everybody uses nothing-special track hubs. Bladed spokes. Uh. Everything was true and well-tensioned. Everything works like it should.

I've got no worries about 'em whatsoever, and will probably buy a similar set of road wheels.

I have set of Deep-V's with Dura Ace hubs from Velomine and 3 sets of FFWD carbon wheels. I feel faster when I ride the FFWD's, but my race results show no difference between them and my Deep-V's. Given that, I know I need to work on my own capabilities before the carbon wheels will make any difference.

For you Planet-X-curious types, here is a pro/con of their road wheels as that's my experience with them (I've had 2 sets for over 2 years and another for 4 years, all tubulars)

Pros:
- Inexpensive wheelset
- Wheels roll well, look good, last long time
- These wheels are pretty bomber - I've ridden them on several fire breaks and single track (on a road bike)
- Customer service is awesome
- Easy to service
- The 80mm+ sets make a cool woosh noise that's almost disc like

Cons:
- Not sure if stickers come off
- A little on the heavy side

Quote:

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Mavic Io + Comete

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I don't get this...

I have just ordered some and I will ride them 100% of the time (on indoor tracks only, I have outdoor wheels!) once they arrive. This includes training SQT's, league races and anything more ambitious I think about in the future.

What's the point of buying such nice wheels only for them to gather dust and only see a track twice a year? With Mavic crash protection, they are covered for disasters etc. Anyway each to their own, but IMO life is too short to hide these away for special occasions.

What's the point of having $7,000USD wheels and putting training tires on them?

The reason people don't use these in weekly racing is because you put really nice tires on your really nice wheels. But, you don't want to ride really nice tires weekly in training races because they are usually thin, light, sticky, expensive, and wear quickly.

So, it's the tires that will keep you from riding them weekly.

And if you do put weekly training tires on them...now you have a set of $7,000 training wheels :D

BTW, hi and welcome to the forum, Steve!

- Thanks :)

Re: Tyre wear, yep I see that point of view, however if that is the ony reason and if one is prepared to spend the money (and time!) replacing them as and when required.

Unless... Does changing the tubs too often lead to destroy the rims themselves as old glue is removed etc?

They will be seeing about 2-4 hours track time a week with complete mixture of riding from slow(ish) SQT line lapping/formation riding excercises, to Keirin, Scratch races, Derny, Madison and Sprints.

My initial Tub choice is (was?) going to be Vittoria Pista Evos, which aren't a bad price (as a few places have them on sale) and from reading up give a good balance of performance and a bit of longetivity (although I might have been reading tosh!).

If I go with them can someone give me an approximation on how long they'd last with that amount of usage? Are we talking like 2-4 weeks (4-6 hours riding time - distance 150km ish), or more like 2-3 months (30ish hours - 1000km) or even longer? I can live with changing tubs say every 3 months, but if they are going to be dead after only 2 or 3 sessions, I can totally see your argument and it would be too frequent a change to do.

Ta for the advice...

Edit: Looking here... http://www.iancammish.co.uk/#!dugast-piste-tubs/cpet

Even Dugast Silk tyres give you a good 2000Km, so even they would well exceed my tolerance for tyre changes - they would give me something like 6 months usage which is totally fine. I can only assume the Evo's last even longer than that.

Indoor wood track? I don't know about the track specific tires, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get a full season plus out of road tt tires, and you'd only be giving up single digit watts compared to, say, vittoria pistas.

How wide is the rim on those? Is it old school, intended for 19 or 21 mm tire width?

The other reason to ride a different wheel for training is spoked wheels are supposed to be more comfortable, but I've never ridden ac disc/tri/five spoke to have personal experience.

Yep indoor wooden only. Recommended tyre size according to Mavic's specs page goes from 21-28, was going to be putting 22's on.

If it's in the range of 1 change a year, thats me sold then! It can be my New Years Eve (+2 day extra glue drying days!) ritual.

The track tire sticky is a wealth of information for tire recommendations. I'd say a full season on some nice tires indoors isn't out of the question. The glue buildup isn't an issue. If it gets too thick, just clean it down and start over. The only thing that would worry me about the Io/Comete is whether they're up to the task of multiple wheel changes. I saw recently on another forum that it's a pretty common issue for the axle end caps to crack from use, so if you'll be swapping gears a few times a session, for a few sessions a week, that could affect you.

If you're only riding indoors on wood, than you can get away with riding only race wheels. But a lot of people save the fast wheels for big events as it gives you a bit of a psychological boost– if you do all your training on heavier spoked wheels with more durable tires, you KNOW you will be faster when you put the race wheels on. I still bring my training wheels to wood tracks, and put the race wheels on when it's time to race.

FYI: Your Io requires a 19c tire, Comete 22-23c. Many people use different tires on the Io and Comete. Different make/model of tires, not just different size.

So with all the gear changes you'll be doing between warm-up, workouts, races, do you think you might not wear certain components out? Does Mavic's crash protection cover stripped hub threads because of all the wear and tear from all those gear changes? What about the time spent swapping cogs when all you had to do was switch out your wheel (in the instance that you had a proper set of warm up wheels)? Why would you overuse something when you have access to something that is easy to write off in case of a crash, is more durable, and more comfortable to ride?

Yes, again this is the kind of stuff I might not have considered, so thanks for making me think about it...

Currently I own 1 set of wheels (the ones that came with the bike) and 2 sets of tyres. So I have indoor tyres and outdoor tyres (clinchers), which I'm swapping twice a week, outdoor mid week, indoor weekends. Main reason for the purchase was to get onto tubs indoors, and having at least indoor/outdoor wheels will instantly save me that constant tyre swapping hassle. (Yes I could have bought indoor training wheels for 10th the price of these, but the opportunity arose to get these and it might never come again, so I took the plunge).

About hub threads/gear changes, I haven't yet needed to change the sprocket at all for the different training sessions, accreditation programs & mock races we've been doing, 15T seems to be doing the job nicely. But admittedly exposire is limited as I've only returned to the track last autumn after a lot of years away (during which time all the old gear I had got sold/given away). Anyway, I've a couple of chainring options between 48 and 51 that seem to cover most/all needs so far.

If/when I get more picky about gears, become stronger, race more and start to appreciate the different requirements for different events/sessions (and different tracks), by then I'll probably have 2 or 3 more sets of wheels for exactly the reasons you say. But for now sticking to that 15T and swapping chainrings if necessary will do, so the hubs should be safe.

Comfort I really had not considered. If I can ride for 4-6hrs on a stiff road bike with carbon rims and bonded carbon spokes (Lightweights) and be ok(ish) by the end, how much worse can a couple of hours indoor track riding be on these super stiff Mavics? Guess I'll find out!

Thanks for the debate(s), hope I'm not sounding like a t**t.

What makes you say the IO needs a 19?

According to IO | Mavic - United Kingdom the specification is 18 to 22 mm and looking at Manchester (my "home") Velo's info Track bike specification - National Cycling Centre they recommend 22 (regardless to wheel choice).

Another thing to consider: You might not want to be "that guy" in the beginner races with a Io/Comete set. You will just attract undue attention and snide remarks. :D

I know it's dumb, but it's human nature and it will happen.

To navigate the social waters, you'll probably want to race all beginner/intermediate races on your training wheels and use the Io/Comete for bigger races until after a while and you get really fast. Fast-enough to shut up the peanut gallery.

Don't worry. We all are.

Fair point. As far as actual racing goes, I most likely will not turn up to my first few league meetings with them on. I'm most likely due a serious beating for the first few racing days I encounter and would not want it to happen on those! I'll probalby have indoor specific training wheels by the time I enter a league (they are all full for 2016 anyway now!) so I'll stick those on, or worst case scenario do a tyre change the way I do now (lol the missus will be most impressed when that day comes!)

So, in the short term (ie starting next week!), as far as "sociable" training sessions (SQT's, Madison/Derny/Sprint training etc), and open sessions with a few mates go, I'll be using them as soon as the glue is dry. And when I start racing I'll take them off again!

Older wheel designs (before the hed/Zipp instigated wide wheel trend) were designed around, and are fastest with, 19-50 mm tires. I wouldn't necessarily worry about that too much before you even have best times to try to beat though, and if mavic says a tire size works I'm confident it will be safe and go on ok. It just might (probably) won't be the fastest option.

I could only find a disc with 33mm tires on it
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=499737

I missed this question.

The Io has a noticeably more narrow rim bed than a standard wheel (including it's mate, the Comete). So putting a 22mm tire on it will mushroom over the sides quite noticeably. Trust me. I've owned the set before and I'm test fit a 22 on there and it's awful. You want a 19mm.

You want a standard 22 or 23mm on the rear to suit the standard sized rim bed.

Here I have a Veloflex Record 19 on the front and Conti Steher 22 on the rear:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8350/8...f62f560b_k.jpg