budhaslug

Hi BikeForum folks,

It has been a long while since I've been on here, but our Calfee (one of twocicle's previously owned frames) is still going strong. While it doesn't actually need anything, I've been thinking of building up a new set of 'unicorn' wheels: fast(ish), light(ish), and cheap(ish). Here is a bit about our situation, what I'm thinking so far, and one big question (Rim type/material):

Situation:
We are a pretty light team (260-265lbs) with a light setup (25-27lbs bike) doing quick road riding on rolling hills. The biggest hill within cycling distance is ~10% and maybe 1/3 mile long (it even has a cute little switchback!). The bike is setup with road rim brakes that have worked great so far and the rear hub is 145mm. I'm not planning on changing any of that. The current wheelset is a Spinergy TX2 with 25mm Continental GP5000. Love the tires, but might consider going to 28s on the new wheel build if the profile works aerodynamically. We are generally rather gentle riders... I've never broken anything on a bike (aside from getting hit by a car once) in about 25 years of riding, and we've never broken anything on either tandem we've owned. Never even needed to true a wheel on the tandems so far!

What I'm thinking so far:
Rear hub: 28hole, probably White Industries unless I can source a Royce rim brake model. Contacted Chris King, and the won't make any more R45 with 145mm spacing. If anyone has other suggestions for 145mm 28h non-disc hubs, I'd love to hear about them! I've given very little thought to the front, but probably 24hole, radial laced, simple and light.

Spokes: Sapim CX-Ray or CX-Sprint or Pillar 1420 or 1422. Specific suggestions/ thoughts appreciated for these.

Rims:
Here is the obviously dilemma: I'd like something aero, light, and with a good profile for that 25-28 GP5000 tire. So ideally 25-27mm wide at the widest.

Alloy: There are still a good variety of medium profile (25-30mm deep) alloy rims (Hunt, HED Belgium, Kinlin xr31, Boyd altamont, Velocity quill, DTswiss R460, Astral Radiant, Easton R90, Alex Rims GV30). Most of those are ~23-24mm wide, so a bit narrower than I'd like, but they have reasonable profiles, and being alloy, there wouldn't be any significant worry about braking heat issues.

Carbon:
Ideally, I'd go 50-60mm deep and 25-27mm wide from LightBicycle (or possibly Yoeleo). The prices of "mainstream" carbon rims (Zipp, Enve, etc) are beyond our limits. I'm confident that these would be built strong enough, but have slight concerns about melting the rims. Given what I said about our riding environment (no long hills), should I just go for it for the sake of aero?

Two other options are a carbon/alloy hybrid rim (I actually emailed Hed about Hed Jet Stallion wheels, but they'll only sell a complete wheelset, so I'd have to rebuild the rear, which ends up wasting a bunch of money... and I just did that for a fixed gear conversion... also they agreed with my "this voids the warranty, full stop." and then went on to give me useful info if I went forward with it anyway). I'm leaning against this because of weight and it feeling like a cobbled together solution that is probably worse than both of the above options.

Finally, I could just go with Rolf Tandem wheels (alloy) or Spinergy FCC 4.7, but neither feel particularly inspiring.

So what would/did you do? Shallow alloy or deep carbon? Specific suggestions, or just forget the whole thing and keep my Spinergy TX2 until they wear out?

Thanks everyone!

Krenovian

I built up a set of wheels using light-bicycle rims, 45mm deep, with White Industries hubs, 32 spokes, DT Swiss Super Comp spokes. We’re running them tubeless with Schwalbe Pro Ones 28mm wide. We’re a 285 lb team on a 28.5 lb tandem. Our other set of wheels is built up using H+ Sons Archetype alloy rims, with Hope Pro 3 hub up front and White Industries hub for the rear. Running Michelin Pro 4s with tubes 25mm wide on these. Spokes are also DT Swiss Super Comps. They are less than half the price of the CX rays and pretty light as well. Alloy nipples all around. Both wheel sets are discs. We ride gravel on occasion with both wheels sets. Both sets have remained true since they were built up.

Carbonfiberboy 

I also build my own wheels and am on my last Kinlin XC279 rim So thanks for posting your listing of candidate rims. Looks to me like the Kinlin XR31T would be perfect for us, since we have the original CK 36H hubs on our Speedster and I am loathe to change them out. It's getting hard to find nice 36H deep rims because of course they don't need to be 36H for a team of average weight. The bummer of no more XC279s is that I'll have to buy a new set of CX-Ray spokes. I've been just transferring them from rim to rim as I wear out the tracks..

budhaslug

Thanks for the replies! I think I'm still torn... I'm leaning toward LightBicycle R55 rims (55mm deep, 25mm wide) that can be reinforced for tandems apparently, but my one significant worry would be some sort of catastrophic rim failure from heat. Has anyone trashed a carbon rim-brake wheel? Was it catastrophic (i.e. leading to a crash), or just a bulge out that might leave us figuring out a ride home (which I might consider a tolerable risk)?

Anyone on some wide (~24mm) aero (~30mm deep) alloy rim brake clinchers with any issues or regrets for not going with deeper carbon?

Finally, has anyone used the Spinergy FCC (3.2 or 4.7) rim-brake wheels? If Spinergy is willing to back a rim-brake carbon rim (and with only 24 spokes), it makes me a bit more comfortable with thinking I could make a carbon rim work for us.

Thanks!

LV2TNDM

I'd be very wary of using rim brakes on a carbon rim. I wouldn't do it on a single, much less a tandem. Does the LightBike rim specify rim brakes? I highly doubt it. It's simply not worth the risk running rim brakes on carbon. Playing with fire. Overheat, soften carbon and BAM! goes your tire and rim. Down goes Frazer! If you do go this route, have a lawyer draw up a liability waiver. I'd be curious if your stoker would sign it!

PS You wouldn't have wanted to run the R45 rear hub anyway - too much issue with notching the cassette body splines. Unless you could have used a stainless body. Would they make a 145mm tandem hub for you instead? If so, that would be my choice of hub. All others, except probably DT, will suffer a failure eventually. But if not, I'd choose White Industries if I had to.

SapInMyBlood

I have 56/65mm deep rim brake carbon wheels from LB and the braking surface is fine / sweet. (single rider, not tandem). I'd go for disc's for a tandem unless you have no other choice