These wheels have me so curious! Plenty light (50g heavier than Roval Control SL though…) and really cool to think of the tune-ability of the wheels since they are 100% carbon.
That said, it all seems very close to MadFiber wheels in the past, which after riding those, were less than stellar.
Love the idea, fear for the cost, and fear the consequences of a broken spoke
I’ve got a mate that’s had a few sets of these (though chooses to race/run an alternate brand) and he said they’re pretty amazing.
I read somewhere that they are in theory still rideable with a spoke removed, I agree though, the fear of a broken spoke writing off a $3000 Euro wheel is a bit terrifying.
He’s sponsored by another company for wheels and Scott for bikes so has trialled the Syncros wheelset but has always offloaded them when they come on a new bike (cash injection) since.
He did comment on their stiffness and lightness but I’ll have to ask for more specific information.
Depending on the actual fabrication process, the likely lack of being able to tension the spokes is an interesting attribute. My instinct would be that they may be too flexy, but like other wheels with no tension, the details of the fabric layup and surrounding material can be tuned to give a range of feel.
Would have been interesting to see if they did a bunch of FEA models and then launched into protos to see how close the estimates were for things like deflection, stiffness, etc.
That and other similar wheels are an engineers dream project
I like a wheel to be on the stiff side of that razors edge when talking about compliance, but not far over the line.
Too flexy and the wheels end up behaving like a redundant suspension system but with no damping control. I’d rather pass all of that into a controllable damper like the suspension, then have the wheels be more of a constant in the chassis flex ecosystem.
I desperately wanted to get a pair but the cost just didn’t make sense for me unfortunately.
He didn’t remark about them being too stiff, but I know you are very particular about your carbon components damping qualities, so it’d be interesting to see what you thought.
Interestingly one of the big questions about them was always that Nino didn’t run them in favour of the DT Swiss wheels. Also, they are slightly narrower than what is the current top end trend aren’t they? That’s all changed based on the latest announcement
If you’re on IG go on “Dangerholm” page and read the comments on his post about the wheels.
He and Brad Copeland have just said there is no better wheel available for XC (sponsored so grain of salt required), but interestingly there’s also a brief discussion about being able to repair/restore original performance and trueness so long as the wheel is t severely buckled by whatever broke the spoke.
With how many spokes Ive broken it’s a no go for me. My buddy had the Mavic road wheels with carbon spokes and popped one of them too, so def not immune
Side note: aren’t Lightweight carbon road wheels built the same way?
I think they are, but could be wrong. Never ridden them, but have two close friends who have and they are persnickety riders. Both of them say they do not ride well.
Is the lack of repairability to shave less than 1 gram per spoke compared to CX-Ray bladed spokes worth it? (carbon spokes at 3.5g versus CX-rays come in at 4.4g)
Are people really struggling with tire inflation due to spoke holes? (rather than actual tire and bead interface)
Do people actually have issues with tubeless tape these days?
I love some bling but these really just don’t do it for me. Mavic had sealed rim beds for years and they didn’t meaningfully improve wheels.
I don’t see any of the perceived benefits they are claiming being remotely related to the one piece construction, but rather due to an improved rim design that could be delivered with regular molded holes and traditional spokes with minimal weight penalty.
I’ll also add that there are plenty of existing ways to tune wheels to your liking using different spoke counts, lacing patterns, tension, and rims from various brands if you are willing to get into the weeds. This is probably my own personal bias having built a bunch of wheelsets myself, but I think most people are more likely to end up with something they love by going a custom build route rather than one of the off the shelf models.
My technique for tubeless tape is as follows. I use the smallest width stans tape that makes sense for the rim bed. It’s super OCD but it works well:
Clean rim bed with isopropyl alcohol
Starting on left side of valve hole, wrap tape 2x around until it overlaps the valve hole for a 3rd time. Two layers of tape, except for valve hole which will have 3.
Install tire and regular tube
Inflate to 60psi, leave in a sunny spot for several hours or just leave overnight to really apply consistent pressure against the tape for a long enough period of time.
Remove tube, install tubeless valve, sealant, etc
Every wheel that I’ve done this for has never had issues with tape.
Oh my goodness, Steve, you’re freaking me out with that routine, but maybe this is why I have problems with tubeless tape some times, lol.
2.5 times around: That’s so much tape! I just start 4 spokes from the valve hole and end 4 spokes from the other side of the valve hole.
Inflate to 60 PSI: For MTB tires!? Depending on the rims, some tires blow right off the bead at 45psi (looking at you, Stans wheels…).
Instead of poking through with the valve core, I heat up a pick and it just melts right through. Doesn’t pull on the tape at all that way and creates a hole that won’t split.
To be clear, my problem with tape is almost entirely on road wheels. The ENVE 5.6s that I have seem to have a shallow rim bed and it makes tires pretty tough to install. Moreover, during the process of getting the tire popped over the rim wall and into the center channel, the really tight tolerances cause the tire to pull on the tape and cause it to shift.
I just can’t believe we use tape on rims and simultaneously land rovers on Mars