Any input on Berd Sparrow wheels? My OEM DT Swiss gravel wheelset is ~1900 gm. The Berd wheels have their polymer spokes and I’d likely go with the Berd Talon hubs for a spec’ed weight of 1042gm. That’s a big diff. These are not deep aero rims, but at my speeds, that’s OK.
The biggest issue that I’ve had with my BERD spokes is the loss of spoke tension and wheel true over time. I’ve pretty much had to teach myself how to true and adjust my BERD spokes because they need adjusting every other ride. I’d sacrifice a few hundred grams to not deal with getting the spoke tension right before big races.
Not sure what, but something sounds wrong with your wheels.
Granted, not “Berd” rims, but I had a set of We Are One Revive rims built up by Berd in late 2022 early 2023 and haven’t had to make a single adjustment. Still spinning true.
Enough that I have a second set of rims with almost the same spec too, not a single issue with those, but not as much time on them yet.
I’d consider calling them and see if they’ll take them back or replacing them.
Loss of spoke tension over time is a known issue with BERD. I dont think there is anything wrong with my wheelset.
All I’m saying is - two wheelsets built by Berd and one of them significantly more use and I haven’t experienced the wheel going even a hair out of true.
I’ll throw it on my stand and check tension sometime this offseason, but so far I haven’t needed to.
Maybe I’m lucky.
Recommend you check out Hunt’s gravel lineup. 1330-1475g. $900-1800USD.
Hey. Thanks for the comments. I don’t have any particular interest in getting polymer spokes, just saw that the wheelset was very light and was wondering about pros/cons. Of course it would be interesting to try polymer spokes and see what the deal is. IDK anything about polymer spokes but I do have a lot of experience with trad wheels. I built a number of my own sets and a good number of wheels when I was working as a bike mechanic. With those, going out of true and breaking spokes is often due to insufficient tension. If Berd spokes lose tension over time, they might need to be retensioned periodically so that they don’t frequently go out of true. That’d be NBD, though it would be preferable not to have to do it. Anyhow, I’m just looking around at this point to get an idea of what’s out there. I’ll check out the Hunt wheels.