wayneliu1

Hi All,

long time lurker here. I pulled the trigger on a set of Falcon R45's last night and will be sending my hubs to light bicycle. Surprisingly I have never shipped anything to China(or international) before. Anyone have any guidance on carrier I should use and specifics around supporting documentation I need to be aware of? My options are USPS, FEDEX, USPS and i'll be shipping from US. Since it takes about 3-4 weeks to build the rim's, thinking some normal shipping method with good reliable tracking would be fine.

Appreciate the help.

scottfsmith

I have run tubeless 30mm tires on my WR50s. My feeling just based on riding is the wider rims are not as aero, they slope too much and the flow detaches earlier. I think you need to go to something like a WR65 to keep the flow attached. The WR65 was not available in the US shop or I would have gotten them, and now I regret it a bit. Still the WR50s are great wheels.

tak2

I would consider having the rims sent to the States and building the wheels at home if you want to use your hubs. Shipping both ways to China may take more time.

smashndash

Issue is that they'd have to figure out what spokes they need, or have a pro wheelbuilder here figure that out for them. And that would add another expense on top of the wheelbuilding fee. But I agree that going local with china rims is a good, and commonly used idea.

wayneliu1

Yeah I did look at local and having the rims shipped here. It would have been double the price and i'm actually not in a huge rush so willing to wait 2-3 months for wheels.

smashndash

What does LB recommend you do to ship? Also, don't they have warehouses in other countries? They're not letting you ship hubs to those?

I think if your hubs are expensive, you don't want to declare their value to be too high, because that might cause issues with customs. But I'm sure someone else here is more knowledgeable than me.

zhoushenglin

Sending small stuff to China is easy. Since the production for rims takes about 2-4 weeks, I think using USPS is enough and would not exceed that time range to make any delay for the whole building. Additionally, building wheels in China saves you quite a few bucks compared to that in the States.

wayneliu1

I am in communication with them and will see if I can ship to their canadian office. They will need to transfer the rims from China to Canada. If I can't do this then i'll try the USPS route. UPS and Fedex was about $200 to ship the hubs to China.

xseal

i got a set that is WR50 in the back and WR35 in the front. Solves the cross-wind concern, if there are others out there considering buying. DT240 hubs. Using with 32c gp5000 tires as “gravel lite/road” wheelset for my Moots. Bulletproof.

aliasfox

Just bit the bullet. R45s laced to DT Swiss 240s via Sapim CX Rays, with red alloy nipples to match the red badge on my Lynskey.

Likely picking up a new cassette (SRAM-1170 11-28 or Ultegra 11-30), and new rotors so I can use the original wheels as backup. Or maybe gravel (for the 1-2x a year I might do that).

These will be replacing Vision Team 30s with an HG800 11-34 and Shimano 86-series rotors. No complaints about braking, but the slow acceleration and wide spaced gearing always irked me relative to my other bikes (both with rim brakes, but lighter wheels and closer-ratio cassettes).

Depending on the supply chain situation, maybe I'll get the new wheels on before the end of summer!

surak

Welp.

My "mullet" option front WR50 rear AR56, Carbon-Ti hub, CX Ray spokes, no internal holes, flyweight option wheelset finally arrived after I ordered in February. It took them a while to build and then there was some back and forth to make them look more similar in finish (something LB actually made me aware of, that I'd missed when they initially sent me the warehouse photos). Weight comes in at 1,387 grams without the tubeless valves. Mounted a 28mm GP5K S TR on the front without any drama. Next up, mounting the 30mm I had ordered and had in waiting for nearly 3 months. Only problem: the tire had a >1 cm cut on the sidewall already.

zhoushenglin

The LB website is impressively shopping straight forward. Does anyone have experience with their "Quick Buy" option? Looks like LB is specialized in customization for quite a wide range of wheels, I do love it. The long waiting time is okay as the "full custom" is really worth it. However, if there is a quicker option (they claim 3 business days to ship on order for "QUICK BUY") and the specs are not bad for me, I would like to give them a chance as well. Before putting money on that, good for me to hear any advice, thank you.

Polaris OBark

I just ordered a set of AR28 i9 Torch wheels for my wife. It sounds like they have a reasonably quick turn-around time.

These will be for 12mm thru axle.

[edit: found where I could buy end-caps for QR]

zhoushenglin

Thank you. Yes, I finally ordered AR55 Falcon Pro wheelset on "Quick Buy" and they did ship out the wheels 2 days later. Great for me. But a bit unfortunately, after my AR55 arrived with me, I just found they also offered compelling carbon spoke wheelset (AR465 race edition) which I would rather like go for it.... ww.lightbicycle.com/newsletter/Light-Bicycle-Flyweight-Carbon-Spokes--Lightweight---Lightning-Fast.html

smashndash

https://www.lightbicycle.com/newslet...ning-Fast.html

LB is now offering 2 carbon spoke types. One is their "race" type which only works with their proprietary hub, which looks decent. Kind of a winspace clone, but IMO the new winspace hubs look better than the LB offering. The "standard" spoke offers compatibility with any hub, which is much more attractive to me.

I've also started using campy red pads with my AR56 wheels w/ grooved graphene brake tracks. They work much better than black prince IMO. Way better initial bite, way less glazing/squealing/howling (though not none). There's a 3 minute technical 10% descent near me that overheats my rims pretty easily. So far, the fade has been much more manageable, and I'm only using them in the front. Only tested dry so far but I can't imagine they'd be worse in the wet.

I believe black prince has been named as the go-to pad for LBs but I really like the campy reds more. Hopefully they don't make my wheels assplode.

himespau 

Are the blue pads LB sells anywhere near as good?

merlinextraligh

plus a gazillion. The hassle, cost, and time shipping the hubs to China, and then counting on them to get them and put you in the production line just wouldn’t be worth it.

your hubs may sit in customs for a long time if you’d unlucky.

ebay your hubs, and buy the complete wheel set, or just buy the rims, and build up, or have built up , the wheels here.

smashndash

You know... I've never tried them. I'll give them a shot once I've confirmed that campy reds don't ruin the wheels.

TrackSmart

Hi folks, how good is the "bead lock" on the newer models of Light Bicycle wheels? For background, I have a set of Light Bicycle Falcon AR24 flyweight gravel wheels. These use the same rim as the RM29C06d mountain bike models. It's one of their oldest rim models.

Overall, they are working out nicely for gravel, HOWEVER, there is not much of a bead lock on these wheels. When deflating tires to add sealant, the tires quickly pop off the bead, which makes them more challenging to re-seat. This is true when using Gravel King 38 and 40mm tires or Continental Terra Speed tires (40mm). Adding an extra layer of rim tape doesn't make a difference.

Do their Light Bicycle's newer models have more of a secure bead lock?

--
Good things about the Light Bicycle AR24 wheelset:
- Lightweight (~1145g for the wheelset Pillar Aero X-TRA 1420 spokes and Novatec D411SB hubs).
- Seems sturdy enough for dirt roads and 'normal' gravel adventures (i.e. I don't do technical single track on the gravel bike).
- Much less expensive than similarly lightweight wheels from other brands.

Bad things
- Very limited "bead lock". When deflating tires to add sealant, the tires quickly pop off the bead, which makes them more challenging to re-seat.

Polaris OBark

I just recently got some for my wife's bike. The bead lock seems extremely tenacious, to the point it worries me.

sean.hwy

I purchased AR 46 with no holes on Nov 2020

post # 1287

What do you consider newer ? With a charge pump or co2 I have not had any issues mounting my tubeless tires on my lightbicycle wheels. I have not found my lightbicycle rims to be any different than several alloy wheels I have setup for tubeless as far as mounting or how easy it is to break the bead.

In my experience getting the gp5000 clincher ( with tubes ) to break the bead is difficult on lightbicycle wheels. While 32mm gravel kings slicks is very easy to break the bead on lightbicycle wheels, but those tires are very easy to break on my alloy wheels also. So at least for me it just seems tubeless gravel king slicks in 32mm just come off the wheels easy.

TrackSmart

Hi Polaris Obark, that's good to hear. And good for safety. If you puncture you'll have time to notice before the tire rolls off the bead - it won't roll off immediately. Can you clarify which rims you purchased? Thanks!

For reference:
- With the RM29C06d, which they rebadged as the Falcon AR24 for gravel usage: If the pressure drops below 5 or 10 PSI with gravel tires, the tires will just fall off the bead (even when suspended in the air, nothing touching them, on the bike stand). That's the opposite of my Stan's Grail wheelset where there is a more prominent "bead hump" and you have to physically push the same tire off the bead. The same tires would never fall off the bead by itself.
- When topping up sealant, I often have to use an Air Shot canister and ensure that the valve core is removed to get enough of a blast of air into the tires to reseat them. On other wheelsets (Stan's Grail, stock no-name wheelset, Prime Kanza/Orra) the tires stay on the bead and can be fully reseated with a normal floor pump without much effort.
- I can work with this situation (and have for a long time), but it does mean you will be putting in a tube if you can't plug a puncture fast enough when on the road or trail. You certainly won't be reseating the tire with a mini pump and it would be maybe 50/50 chance with a CO2 cartridge, since you don't get the benefit of faster air flow by having the valve core removed.

Okay... I hope that explains. These are one of Light Bicycle's older rim models, so I hope/suspect that newer models have a different rim profile.

TrackSmart

Hi Sean, thanks for the feedback! As for the question of "old": I've been told that the RM29C06d (rebranded "AR24" recently for gravel) are an older and different design than many of LBs other wheelsets. They were originally for mountain bike usage (now they are in the sweet spot of width for modern gravel tires).

See my post just above for greater clarification on the bead retention issue. I suspect that the AR24/RM29C06d rims are a different animal from what you are describing -- though please correct me if I'm wrong. Pushing the tire off the bead is different from having them fall off the bead, even when the bike is in the stand, and you are releasing air as slowly as possible -- to avoid dropping the tire off the bead. I have other wheelsets (again, see post above) that have more of a "bead hump" that retains tires even when you release air pressure (e.g. for topping off sealant). Even using the same exact tires that I use on the AR24 wheelset (Gravel King and Continental Terra Speed), those other wheelsets won't spontaneously drop the tire from the bead at low pressure.

As I said, the AR24 (in flyweight form) is an extremely light (1150g total for wheelset), shallow depth wheelset that is otherwise great for gravel. I'm just wondering whether other LB models might cover those bases while also having better tire retention. I'm also wondering if, in general, their other rims do a better job at tire retention. Sounds like "yes" for the AR46. Not sure about others.

Polaris OBark

Just double-checked.

Ours are AR-28

Polaris OBark

If I want to try to reproduce the problem, should I just deflate the tire and see if it breaks the seal spontaneously?

One caveat: They still have tubes in them. I was going to set them up tubeless, but haven't been in a rush. If the tube (even deflated) is helping, I will keep it this way.

This is a potentially critical issue. I bought these based on the experiences posted in this thread, so if it a general problem, it would be good to know about it before making any future purchases.