embankmentlb

Organizing my hoard of bike parts a few days ago I realized that I have those nos Rigida Score 36 hole heat treated rims. I also have some nos Triomphe 36 hole hubs.
Looks like a perfect opportunity to build a set of wheels!

I can’t find much info on the Score clincher rims.
What is your experience with these?

CliffordK

I haven't used those. But if they have anodized brake tracks, then eventually they will wear to look patchy.

dddd

I would say relatively low quality, not such good resistance to bending at all.

georges1

I had a pair of rigida DP18 with ultegra hubs in my very early days of road bike racing they were ok but not the best rims I have had, when I switched to the Mavic CXP 30 back then, it was a whole another level . I would rather get a pair of mavic open pro or open pro ust which are the reference for road rims

clubman 

I had an early 90's carbon Giant with these (980?). They will work just fine until they don't.

embankmentlb

So these are not the quality of a Mavic MA40?
They look pretty nice with the spoke hole grommets nice finish.

clubman 

Rigida made some top shelf rims in their day so I'm sure they're decent. I think it's near impossible to pass judgment on many rims.
Mavic just has better cred.

ThermionicScott 

Use 'em and update Velobase with your results.

Trakhak

Hard treated, not heat treated.

FWIW, Jobst Brandt hated hard-anodized rims. The slick surface treatment, he said, reduced braking effectiveness. And the very thin, hard, brittle coating would form microcracks that would then propagate into the aluminum underneath, forming larger cracks, usually around the ferrules.

Interesting how some apparent innovations made a big splash and then disappeared rapidly. Seat stays with inserted carbon sections would be another example.

Edited to add link to Brandt's musings on the topic of hard-anodized rims.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/anodized-rims.html

gearbasher

I had a set of Ambrosio Super Elite rims that were hard-anodized. And like the above post stated, they did start to crack around the ferrules. With that said, I did get about 10,000 miles out of them in all conditions.

Trakhak

Yes, I too used various hard-anodized rims in the years after they were introduced and got good enough service from them, despite the cracks around the ferrules. Among the guys I raced with back then, we'd as soon have been seen without the latest dark anodized rims as shown up at the start line with unshaven legs. If I were building up an '80s-era racing bike, I'd probably try to find some hard-anodized rims for it, for nostalgia's sake.

dddd

Rigida was always a second-tier maker in terms of durability in my experience. Don't expect anything close to Mavic toughness as Rigida rims were usually made to meet lower OEM price points.
My same warning applies to Weinmann rims from the 1980's/90's era, after their heavy "concave" model went away.

roadcrankr

Rigida’s best effort came from these rims/wheels. Heavy suckers and very tough.
I bought an 8sp Shimano-compatible wheelset (for cheap) from their booth at Interbike in the mid-90’s.
End of the show so they sold many to show-goers during booth teardown. Bladed spokes and decent hubs.
Sold over twenty years ago on eBay. Advertised them as a poor man’s Mavic Cosmic wheelset. lol $120 shipped back then.
A buddy gave me the rims you see here, which I built with regular spokes for my son’s bike.
Seriously…these rims will last forever.

79pmooney

In my quick scan of this post, I read that as "concrete"! Not all that far off.

And a story about those bridge-building worthy rims. 1st summer of my Peter Mooney. Set up with intentionally non-race wide Concaves. 10 months since last race. Club ride in Santa Cruz. Town line sprint. I went early, using the speed of coming off a bridge. Local hotshot comes flying past on my right with a young, strong newbie on his wheel. Hotshot snaps over to my line as soon as he's cleared. Newbie comes over with him, but now, his wheel is where my front belongs. I steer away; a temporary fix. Gotta get the wheel back under me or I'm going down and taking the next half dozen behind with me.

I bring my wheel back, then lean it into his and push off. A very loud ripping of spokes. (His quick release. The QR lever opened.) Bikes separate. I manage to control my massively wobbling bike and bring it to a standstill. 8 consecutive right side spokes were gone and a pair of lefts. Rim wobbled so badly tire left a polished steel oval on the left fork blade. That paint was the only permanent damage. 10 spokes and the wheel was as good as new. I cannot imagine any other rim I've ever ridden surviving that.

dddd

That's a helluva story, like chariot racing!
Might a Module-4 have taken that same punishment? Would anyone (er, besides me) race or even train on those???
I can't recall ever coming across a bent A29 Concave though.
Impressive for being single-walled!

Oh, and they had 26" Concaves, ...even wider and heavier, though not immune to flat-spotting of course.

There were also cheapened OEM versions, variously lacking an anodized finish and/or eyelets, some with the rim joint milled narrower than the rest of the rim (recalling Raleigh here), result of too much price-break bargaining on large orders.
...Can't recall if there were both pinned- and welded-joint Concave versions(?).

repechage

there might be a good reason they are still in the wrapper.
as I built a lot of wheels in the 80's, Rigida were not a favorite.

embankmentlb

I probably ended up with them because know one else wanted them.

clubman 

I've been riding these casually but regularly for about 20 years and they remind me of the Ambrosia Super Elites. Bombproof. I'm a clyde and they haven't required anything but the slightest of tweaks. They were spec rims on a late 80's Schwinn Circuit.

embankmentlb

I managed to find some of the Regina scores referenced in an old 80s mail order catalog.
They are listed as racing only. Odd for a clincher rim. The equivalent Mavics are listed for racing and training. Makes me think the scores don’t have much durability.

ThermionicScott 

I have a set of those 26" Concaves. Since they weren't already on Velobase, I added an entry: https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.a...7af5a&Enum=107

The stupid things have a good chance of outlasting me.