A New York City bike store just started selling these Super Classic II wheels for $499. They’re now $399 d2c. Very tempting.
I’ve used LightBicycle, Farsports, Craft CRW, 9Velo, and now Zen. All have been good. The LB were my first set and on the heavier side, they have lighter sets now. The Craft CRW were crazy light but got rid of them because they were pretty narrow at 21mm internal. I still have the Farsports, 9Velo, and Zen. Farsports are 24mm internal which is probably the absolute narrowest I’d go on the road, and even then I think 26mm int is perfect for road. They’re 58mm deep, carbon spokes, and weigh 1300g. Solid wheels. I managed to get them right before they exploded in popularity so I paid $800. They’re my race wheel for now.
The 9Velo are my gravel wheels for now. 45mm deep, 26mm int, 1353g weight. Bombproof is the best way to describe them. Only complaint is that they’re narrow for gravel. But super solid wheel and pretty light.
The Zen are my newest addition. I wanted an all road wheel so I did 29mm int and 36mm external, carbon spokes, 45/50 depth, and they weigh 1090g. I’ve mounted up a few different tires so far. My favorite (but not ERTO safe) is running 32c GP5K S TR that blow up to 35.5mm. Amazing setup. Fast tires that blow up to 35mm, super light and stiff wheel. This is my daily driver for my Addict RC. Super light, super stiff, super comfortable. And a fast tire to boot. Best of all worlds. And puts my Addict around 6.3kg.
I’m now looking for a super deep race wheel, >65mm deep because #F_the_UCI. 26mm internal minimum. Hoping Continental will release a larger width 111 aero tire. Will likely run the aero 111 29 front and GP5K 32 rear. Carbon spokes are a must. I’m leaning towards Craft CRW again. Scope if I had the money. But I’d do Zen again if they have the deep wheels. Can’t beat their pricing. I was speaking with Farsports a while back and they were developing a super deep wheel, I think around 70 or 75 if I remember correctly, but I haven’t seen it yet.
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I’ve got a set of the LightBicycle Airia 52s on order.
Flyweight rims, Plus hubs and extralite spokes they should be under 1kg for 52mm deep wheels.
Ordered on black friday and got around 200GBP off of them, so including all the shipping and taxes they will have cost me less than £1k GBP
I’m in the market, too. Among the established brands, there doesn’t look like much to separate one from the others. If you dig you can find comments like, “Elite Drive II hubs are quieter than the original Drive wheels, but still loud” but you have to watch a lot of youtube to get that level of nuance.
I’m more concerned about hub performance and reliability than rim shapes, and there isn’t a lot of talk about that area in most comments. That leads me to spec out wheels with DT Swiss hubs, and that puts me over my budget. So here I sit will analysis paralysis. Not riding outside for a few months, so no rush.
In my experience, any impact strong enough to destroy a Nextie rim would probably take out most Western or other big‑name carbon wheels as well. The main difference is cost—Chinese wheelsets are often half or even a third of the price. And if you do break one in a way that qualifies for warranty, they generally take care of it.
When a warranty claim is submitted, they review the photos and usually have someone from the engineering team inspect the damage. It’s typically pretty clear whether the failure was caused by foreign object damage (FOD) or a manufacturing defect (MFD).
That said, even if the break was due to FOD, in my experience the manufacturer will still offer a 30–45% discount off your original purchase price for a replacement.
The key is working directly with them or a distributor/dealer, most of these companies run small offices out of big manufacturing facilities and share similar designs/molds etc but different material.
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Apt time for PT to drop a video that discusses the current race for sub 1kg, 50mm deep wheel sets, carbon spokes and the downsides..
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PT does support his findings with sound principles but on this topic he does seem to be somewhat on an island. The almost universal adoption of carbon spokes pushes back on his theories to a degree and though I take what he says seriously I do wonder if some of it is overblown. The single biggest controversy is the captured spoke interface in the hubs. I was at a shop yesterday that is a dealer for Elite wheels. They are one of the better known Chinese wheel brands and they are still using the non captured hub design. They are risking much with respect to reputation and market share if that design were inherently flawed so I do have to wonder if the theory holds true.
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I’ve been training and racing on the 50mm Elite wheels and they are great. They came with ceramic bearings and steel spokes. I’m very satisfied with them. I bought them used from a friend who weighs 250lbs and he rode them for a couple of months before realizing his rides are just commuting and had no need for them lol.
A friend has been on SuperTeam wheels for a couple of years and is very happy with them.
Another has Winspace with carbon spokes and is also very happy with them.
Most of the top tier Chinese wheels are very high quality but be aware as they become more widespread and popular compared to more traditional brands the costs are also rising.
I’m a big fan of Alex and really appreciate the way he breaks down engineering topics. His analysis in the recent video is solid, and a lot of his points about carbon spoke interfaces are absolutely valid.
That said, as you mentioned, the wheel system he focuses on—the EXAR (Magene Brand) carbon spoke interface—isn’t what most riders see in the current market. It’s a bit of an outlier. The vast majority of carbon‑spoke wheels today use captured or more “common‑style” hub interfaces, similar to the long‑standing DT Swiss draw‑through design.
Brands like Nextie (and many others) are basically building on that established architecture, and from an ownership perspective, that makes a huge difference. Those hub designs tend to be more maintainable, parts are easier to source, and the risk of spoke/hub interface failure is significantly lower compared to the systems Alex highlighted.
I’ve been riding carbon spokes since 2021 across both road and MTB, and I’ve formed some opinions of my own along the way. They’re not perfect, but the more conventional hub/spoke systems simply aren’t having the issues demonstrated in the video.
Two sets of Elites here.
First being rim brake ENT2.0’s (as options were getting limited) and after a few thousand mile of use, they have been faultless, cant complain about the quality, the ride etc.
All I would complain about is the crosswinds, but that is harsh given they are 82mm deep on the front & I weigh 59kg.
Secondly would be the hub noise being horrendously loud. Great if you want that kind of thing but not my cup of tea.
Not enough to put me off though, so ordered a new set of 82/82s for the new TT bike this time in thru axle. ENT2.0’s again and at £200 including delivery in the black friday sales, they are ludicrously cheap.
Warranty concerns are valid, but I could buy 6-8 sets of these before reaching the RRP of a western branded set.
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Iv had farsports and now run lightbicycle. Can’t fault either always used DT240 hubs and I like the fact I can run a 28spoke rear wheel. Being closer to 100kg iv smacked potholes at 30mph+ and they’ve never needed truing or anything. For the weight and spec you’d pay 2.5x the price from a big brand for the same wheel
This is what gives me pause. Are there any brands that have hubs that are not really loud? DT Swiss is of course an option, but I’m trying to keep the price down.
I havent seen any that were quiet. Some quieter but not what id call quiet.
I commute on a set of 14 year old Shimano RS20’s and they are gloriously quiet, almost no noise at all.
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Pick what you want with LB, lots of known options.
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Yeoleo C60 NXT SL2’s or the new CS60 would be my vote. 60mm deep, 23mm internal, 32mm external, 1345g or 1285g depending on which one you get. 1/3 of the price of western wheels.
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Thanks. that’s probably the route I’ll go, once I shake some money from the couch cushions. I wonder if those Onyx Vesper hubs re any good.
You can make a dtswiss hub silent with the WRP dt Swiss kit. However it does cost a pretty large bag.
It’s “faster” when coasting but the main benefit is no noise without the weight of something like the onyx racing hubs.
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Escape collective did a story on one option for converting hubs.
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