In building up my own wheels I’ve had good luck with Carbonfan rims. The set on mtb are 8 years old, a little banged up, but still doing well. https://www.carbonfan.com/
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As a 97kg rider I like the peace of mind I get from using wheels that have a solid warranty and high weight limit. I currently own and have had no issues with Bontrager & DT Swiss carbon road wheels and a set of Reynolds ATR X for my all-road bike.
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Light Bicycle, Nextie, BTLOS, for starters.
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Winspace and elite and lightbike.
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Another great resource for wheel sets that average everyday people ride is HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST BIKE WHEELS FOR YOU - In The Know Cycling. This guy reviews all kinds of bike gear with his friends and gives their takes on it as well. Well worth some time to check his site out, whether it’s wheels in this case, or helmets, shoes, tires, bibs, etc. Good luck.
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Check out the weight weenies forum. Hundreds of threads and posts and pictures and discussions and experiences from people about different manufacturers and sellers of Chinese wheel brands
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Thanks for all the great replies. A lot to chew on and i’ve made my way through a majority of the suggestions and linked content.
The mention of Panda Podium and Joe bringing the Asian brands to the western markets is a huge driver behind my hunt. He’s done a great job at making people wince at the cost of Zipp and Enve while showing that a majority of these wheels are all made in literally the same place.
I’ve landed on a set of Farsport C6 which are 56mm carbon hoops with steel spokes priced at $1,100 USD shipped. There is enough background with them for customer service to be visible online by many counts.
I’d started this hunt thinking I’d end up with a set of ~$500 Superteam wheels on amazon. The kicker there was the lack of consistency in spec, I’d not feel confident that I’d receive exactly what i place an order for. Especially along the low end of the range, the multiple listings appear identical with slight deviations to title.
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I’m curious why you chose that brand over Zipp, Enve, etc., if you’re going to spend that much?
The lowest end from ENVE is still nearly $1,500 for a set and ZIPP $2,000. The Farsports are 24mm internal and really at the upper end of my arbitrary budget.
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The chinese brands are actively marketing their products in the WW forum. Post anything related to wheels and you quickly get several replies from the company reps and influencers telling why you should choose their wheels.
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Definitely. Like any place on the internet you have to be a bit careful about what/who you believe.
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I wouldn’t even feel like this is a problem if it’s clear who you’re talking to is a rep, AND that sort of immediate response didn’t disappear as soon as the order is placed. This is the thing I’ve had happen a couple times with the lower end asian branded stuff. Once the money hits their account, you move to the back of the priority line and god help you if you have a problem once the package arrives.
I still take a chance once in a while but I’m wiser now, and my expectations are certainly lower. Always, always use a credit card in case you need to do a chargeback. Buying from platforms like eBay can be helpful, but in many cases both eBay and PayPal will tell you to return the item in the event of a problem. Which leaves you figuring out how to repackage a set of wheels and ship them back to China or simply give up and live with the problem, which these companies know and bank on.
I’ve had terrific experiences with the mid and upper Asian brands. I have two sets of custom made Nextie wheels and they are as good or better in every way than the Aeolus Pro, Roval and Enve foundation wheels I have. Granted they aren’t “cheap,” but that’s the thing, you’ll never get cheap without sacrificing somewhere. What I do know is my two wheelsets cost less than one Enve SES set, which is pretty good value in my book.
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I’ll echo the praise for Light Bicycle rims. I’ve found the best combination for me is the affordability of Light Bicycle rims, along with my own choice of hubs and a great, reputable builder.
Hammbuilt Wheels built my latest set of road wheels for my Aethos, using Light Bicycle rims and Carbon-Ti hubs.
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I know there is a lot of fear around purchasing carbon wheels from a brand your not sure of or isn’t predominant in the Western market.
The thing is, almost all carbon rims for the world come from a handful of factories, they are then sent to boutique companies that do the assembly and components of their choice. China is actually the leader in carbon wheel technology, pushing the market in advancements and western brands are traditionally 2-3 years behind (assuming they have sold all inventory).
There has been some great companies mentioned in this thread.
Nextie
Winspace
Light Bicycle
Elite
Lightbike
There are others but the above mentioned are actually very well known.
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While accurate, that doesn’t mean that all rims coming out of a given factory are equal. It just means that they came from the same factory and that the factory is capable of producing very high-quality rims.
It does not mean that their house-brand or D2C rims are the same or of equal quality.
Note - I am not saying that all D2C Chinese wheel companies are producing low-quality rims. By all reports, some make great rims / wheels. Indeed, looking at their OE partners can be reassuring. But just because you are getting wheels from the same factory as a company like ENVE / Zipp doesn’t mean you are getting an unbranded ENVE / Zipp or whatever brand.
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You are correct, we are getting into fine details now with rim layup and material etc. I see the holes in what I said.
For the most part - the rims that are going to boutique companies are coming from one of the few CN manufacture of some sort - that includes western brands and even larger CN brands. If you stick with some of the known brands they most likely will have QC and testing protocols in place that make them safe.
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Yup….agreed!
I agree with everything said and this goes for a manufacturing in general. However what we don’t know is to what tolerances something is considered acceptable.
For all we know, 1000 hoops are produced and 800 of them within spec get labeled as one brand, and the 150 get labeled as the house brand at a fraction of the cost while only 50 get tossed or reworked in some way.
In a way this is how some processors are binned. Given they’re manufacturing has some more unpredictable outcomes, they produce a number of chips, and label them based on their test score, not necessarily the target they set out to produce.
I’ve yet to pull the trigger on the Farsports though i’m getting closer and closer. This conversation is going in a great direction.
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I can say with reasonable degree of certainty that these factories are not using the molds that they use for the big OE customers to make their house-brand stuff. Maybe some of the lower end stuff uses the ame molds, but I think even that is pretty doubtful.
Also worth mentioning that ENVE makes their rims in house in the US, with the exception of their Foundation wheels.
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Ive never bought “chinese off brand” wheels, but have several friends who have that have had overall good success with them. My buddy just did a summer of crit racing followed by a winter of CX on some CRWs without any issue. Any wheel, regardless of brand, that can do a season of cyclocross without so much as needing to be trued gets my vote. For comparison, I killed the bearings in my zipp 303s in one weekend of muddy cyclocross, and my buddy on CRWs was at the same race, so ill give it an apples to apples. My opinion on this has changed over the last year or so as Ive seen more and more people running them without major complaints
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