What's the consensus on carbon clinchers, seriously?

[Marin]

100.000+ vertical meters on a set of 50mm Farsport clinchers, no wear of the brake surface at all.

[fogman]

Were there specific brands/models of these wheels that failed more often than others that gave carbon clinchers a bad name?

[eric]

If you go back in time a few years even the major brands carbon clinchers were failing due to brake heat.

I did the Mullholland Challenge (120 miles/14k' of climbing) yesterday. One of the descents, Deer Creek, is super steep and has some tight turns and somewhat bad pavement. It's on the side of a mountain right above the ocean so you get the impression that if you blow a turn you will end up in the water. My team mate and I were both on Farsports carbon clinchers. He's as good a descender as I am and weights only a few lbs more. He was worried about the rims overheating and went down slow. I was worried about my rims overheating and bombed the descent. His front rim melted and the tire came off; my wheels were fine. (I did the descent 1 1/2 times as I went back up to see what happened to him. He was ok and I finished the ride after the delay).

I think that going slow was what did in his rim. Going faster means more air to pull heat away.

[Calnago]

Going faster means you weren't using your brakes as much. Your buddy on the other hand was using his more. Those are tradeoffs I wouldn't want to have to make. Slow or fast, I don't want to have to worry about when I can and when I can't use my brakes for fear of a melting rim and worse, a tire coming off during a descent.

[bombertodd]

I saw a guy yesterday melt his front wheel and blow out his tube. He said it was a Light Bicycle wheelset. He was ahead of me on a descent it got flat about 2% then we came down a hill about 150 feet tall 8-10% with a stop sign at the bottom. He looked to be about 150-160 pounds in weight.

My wife has been asking for a set of "deep black wheels" and I am pretty scared to give her a set. She has been guilty of brake dragging.

[petromyzon]

I have a Light-Bicycle rimset which I am really happy with (built them up myself). I have done mostly flat rides so far and will take care to build up the descending slowly. Wouldn't hesitate to ride them for disc brake applications, they are stiff and light with a good shape.

[cybernck]

This might be a strange question, but what are the HEAVIEST low-profile carbon-clinchers I can buy?

The reason for it is simple - I train on cheap ~1900g wheels (Shimano RS11) and switch over to 500g lighter wheels for races.

However, I'm now probably going for lightweight (not as in brand name) carbon-tubulars for racing and want to switch over to carbon-clinchers for training, also to be used as a spare set of wheels for the races (due to obvious brake pad incompatibility). Therefore, I'd still like to have something heavy-ish, sturdy, cheap-ish and, most importantly - reliable, for training use. I'd also like them to be normal narrow rims.

What suggestions can you give me?

Thanks, Nikica.

[kulivontot]

cybernck,
just go on ebay and look for the absolute cheapest set possible. I'd say junky hubs and spokes are probably going to contribute more to the overall weight than the rim itself. I'd also guess that heavy carbon rims might come with some crappy brake track as well

[cybernck]

OK, but junky hubs may lead to constant headaches as well.

I'll give the whole idea some more thought. Maybe I'll get cheap used carbon wheels for race spares and continue training on alloy. That leaves me with regular brake pad swaps, but still...

[eric]

Different carbon wheels work best with different carbon rim pads. You'd want to use LW's pads on your LWs but the best pads for carbon clinchers will
probably be something else entirely. And I'm guessing that LW's pads are not cheap. Would it make sense to wear them down during training?

If you have Shimano pad holders I have found that you don't need to completely remove the fixing screw to remove the pads. Leaving the screw in and using a T handle allen wrench makes the pad changes quick.

[cybernck]

I said lightweight NOT as in brand name, but as in light in weight. The wheels in question are Mavic CCU's therefore advised pads are Swissstop Yellow.

Your point is completely valid though and not something I had considered so far. I should keep the pads fresh for the race wheelset.

What if I were to use alloy wheels as spares? Will their use render the carbon pads useless or can they be saved afterwards (the pads, that is)?

Thanks.

[eric]

If you use carbon pads on aluminium rims the pads need to be carefully inspected and any shards of aluminium removed. If the pads glazed then you should file the glazed part off so the pad face is fresh. Also the braking with carbon pads on aluminium can be pretty bad especially in the wet. But if it's a spare wheel in a race it's not going to happen often.

[Calnago]

Yes, I've flatted a carbon tubular just before a big ride and had enough time to get home and throw in an aluminum clincher without changing pads no problem. Rode without issue. Rode with it like that for several rides afterwards actually. Was ok. But I did make sure to pick out every shard of aluminum that had embedded itself in the pads before I put the carbon wheels back in. And there were a few. Carbon actually seems to be much much tougher than aluminun. I've yet to wear out or even seen a worn out carbon rim. Amazing stuff this carbon [emoji3].

[fogman]

My observations from the Tour of Tucker County Road Race this past weekend:
There is a 5 mile steep neutral descent to the start/staging area. This is also the final climb at the end of the race. Numerous flats on this descent to the start including one crash, at least 2 using latex tubes and carbon clinchers.
My conclusion:
Carbon Clinchers + Latex Tubes + Long Steep Descent + Prolonged Braking = Potential Failure.

[tikka]

Tour magazine ran an experiment last year with Reynolds, Zipp, DT Swiss, Campag, Mavic (hybrid) carbon clinchers simulating an alpine descent, with system weight of 100kg. From memory it consisted of 5 moderate braking events of 5 seconds each, followed by five hard events of 7 seconds, and ended with an emergency stop from full speed.

Only the Campag and Mavic rims came through unscathed.

I don't remember full details and have no link to it so take with a big grain of salt. In any event the suggestion was that all were OK for general flat and rolling hills, but caution was advised in the most extreme conditions.