North American here, so I can’t seem to find much information about this house brand of Sigma Sports.
I have been able to find more user experiences from some other brands in this segment such as Light Bicycle, Scribe, Parcour, but Vel’s wheel offerings are pretty new.
I am looking at some the Vel 50 RSL with dt 240 exps and sapin cx-rays that are £1000, so $1200 give or take. This is a bit cheaper than a comparable Light Bicycle build before shipping cost. However, they are currently on sale for just under $750 shipped. Can these things be for real at that price? The rim profile is a bit dated (20.3 mm internal) and surely open mold, but still. I am willing to give up some watts on the profile so long as these won’t land me in a ditch.
Sigma are a huge retailer with a solid reputation so I don’t think they’d be risking their own name on something they didn’t believe in. I’m sure their model is the same as Prime wheels from Wiggle/CRC. Bulk buy discounts which they partly pass on to consumers. Not sure the exact model/deal you’re referring to, but I have started to notice what looks like a clearout of their gen1 wheels in order to move onto the next version.
I imagine VEL will follow a similar path to Hunt, Scribe, and most recently Prime, who all started with various versions of this open mould resale model before building up enough momentum/capital to dive into their own aero testing and custom profiles, etc.
No personal experience but I can’t really see a reason not to trust them. Sigma has pretty good warranty/aftersales support too, though I don’t know what it’s like dealing with them from overseas. Looks like a good buy - like Prime or the early days of Hunt but with DT instead of Bitex. Could also think of them as LB/Farsports with western sales support I guess (and I expect this is how they want to be seen too).
Yip they are legit. They’ve just opened a store near me (well driving distance) and I’ve bought hundreds of times from them online. They’ve had a couple of other stores for years (London I think) but they are mostly online. I’ve idea about the quality of the specific wheel though, I dare say they wouldn’t sell them if they weren’t decent though.
Thanks for input. Trigger has been pulled. Sigma’s site states no imports for transactions under $800 so we will see. What I found from people in the US ordering Scribe wheels indicated they got a bill from Fed Ex after delivery.
Very interesting. They’re even hooked tubeless, which is nice because I really don’t like that hookless rims only work with a limited selection of tires. And I’m not trusting anybody but the top few brands on their holes design and especially their quality control on the dimensions. Yet everyone seems to be going towards hookless on their new rims.
I’ve got a pair of the Vel 60s on my crit bike, very happy with them, great value and seem solid. Sigma are a good shop, I would be a bit more nervous buying from overseas in terms of support and warranty, but hopefully you won’t have any problems.
Your question is the rim and build any good. Most of the off-the-shelf carbon rims are overbuilt tanks. They’re somewhat narrow for modern wheels and you can’t really know about the aero qualities. This is probably a rim you’d want to run a 25-26mm front tire on.
I saw that in the deals sections earlier, but the ship has already sailed for the Vel’s, but those would have been tempting. Perhaps enough to get me to try hookless.
hookless is no deal in any way, shape, or form. The issue with the road tires was the narrow rim edge sawing at the tire. It isn’t a hookless issue so much was as a sharper knife on the edge that the hookless allowed. Otherwise, it makes no difference in any way.