Knight Composites - 'fastest carbon wheels ever'

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pdlpsher1
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by pdlpsher1

A new carbon wheel company has emerged.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/knight- ... -exclusive

Why does the fastest wheels have to use J-bend spoke? To me that seems like yesteryear's technology.

eric
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by eric

J bend spokes are easy to work with and easy to replace, the hub design is simpler, and there's a wide choice of hubs.

Nice to see that the CEO is a woman- that's unusual in the bike industry.

by Weenie


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53x12
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by 53x12

It mentions they are based out of Bend, OR. I'm curious where production will take place? USA or Asia? I know Enve was contemplating moving overseas but made a commitment to staying stateside.

I'm all for more competition in the industry. I wish them well. Seems like they have a bit of previous experience in the field between the three of them.
"Marginal gains are the only gains when all that's left to gain is in the margins."

TheDarkInstall
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by TheDarkInstall

By 'wheels', what they actually mean is 'rims'. The rest of the parts are supplied by Sapim, DT, Chris King or Tune. OK. The weights seem heavy-ish / average, so for a new company, so there is no USP there.

Aerodynamics; meh, off the bike... what about on?

Price; they say it is cheaper, but that is still a two and a half thousand Euro wheel set there, which I am sure we could all break the costs down to work out how much they are charging for the rims.

Will have to wait and see, of course, but I always wonder what these people are thinking when they launch yet another carbon rim company, and don't offer anything substantially new; I mean, we can all just say, "yeah, make it thicker and deeper", and that will make it a bit more aero, but there is no innovation there until you can do that and get the weight down.

I suppose my main cringe here though is with the writing of the BikeRadar article.

-"Game Changer"; Check and cringe!
- Paraphrases the marketing banter from the product they are talking about for 3 paragraphs, then go on to give their 'impressions' based on having ridden it up the road for a bit, and not done any real testing, which ALWAYS goes like, "First impressions are it is very stiff and responsive, and you can feel the lightness / speed / etc etc". Yawn.

I can't be the only one who gets bored by how predictable bike product reviews are, surely?

LOL. What a rant.

Anyway, my prediction; we won't really see much of these 'rims' other than on a few bikes here or there.

But yeah, good to see the CEO is a lady.

TheDarkInstall
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by TheDarkInstall

53x12 wrote:It mentions they are based out of Bend, OR. I'm curious where production will take place? USA or Asia? I know Enve was contemplating moving overseas but made a commitment to staying stateside.


Well, the article does say, "Knight Composites is a small team of just three people: Beverly Lucas, Jim Pfeil and Kevin Quan." If this is entirely accurate, one would assume that either these three are designing, arranging, marketing, liaising, buying, selling, doing payroll, doing tax, and also rolling their sleeves up on a daily basis and laying the carbon and epoxy with their own hands... or they are subcontracting the manufacture somewhere. Let's have a guess where that might be!!

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53x12
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by 53x12

"Well, the article does say, "Knight Composites is a small team of just three people: Beverly Lucas, Jim Pfeil and Kevin Quan." If this is entirely accurate, one would assume that either these three are designing, arranging, marketing, liaising, buying, selling, doing payroll, doing tax, and also rolling their sleeves up on a daily basis and laying the carbon and epoxy with their own hands... or they are subcontracting the manufacture somewhere. Let's have a guess where that might be!!"

I know it says that it just three of them now, but that doesn't necessarily doesn't mean that they can't hire labor to do the composite work if they plan on building here in the States. That is why I was wondering where production was going to take place. My guess would be Asia. But I didn't want to assume anything.
"Marginal gains are the only gains when all that's left to gain is in the margins."

TheDarkInstall
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by TheDarkInstall

Fair enough indeed.

It could be that they are making them in the states when you look at the cost of the rims as part of the wheels they are making up...

TheDarkInstall
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by TheDarkInstall

...the article says the 35mm wheelset retails for 2,599 USD. With DT 240 or 180. So the DT 240 is the same price as the 180... Haha, I will have the 180 then please!

Must be a mistake there.

Anyway, let's assume DT 240 hubs, and Sapim CX Ray spokes.

DT 240s pair; about 565USD at retail
Sapim CX Ray spokes; about 2.5USD each, total 110USD for 44 spokes and nipples.

675USD for hubs and spokes, leaving 1924USD for the rims.

They better be amazing for that price! Haha.

SLCBrandon
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by SLCBrandon

These start up's usually fail in one area, IMO, and that's branding. I can't take them or their product seriously when it looks like a friends kid taking design classes at the local Community College did their "logo".

Pay a real designer the money to create a mark and branding theme that conveys that you think you're the best and plan on being around for longer than a few years. I don't care how fast they are, I wouldn't put them on any of my bikes, as is.

NealH
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by NealH

Its good to see the focus on clinchers but the price is not exactly what I'd call "market shattering", as they advertise. And we need to see the performance comparisons over wind yaw angles other just 15 degrees.

I will speculate that these are being built under contract by Reynolds.

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CharlesM
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by CharlesM

53x12 wrote:"Well, the article does say, "Knight Composites is a small team of just three people: Beverly Lucas, Jim Pfeil and Kevin Quan." If this is entirely accurate, one would assume that either these three are designing, arranging, marketing, liaising, buying, selling, doing payroll, doing tax, and also rolling their sleeves up on a daily basis and laying the carbon and epoxy with their own hands... or they are subcontracting the manufacture somewhere. Let's have a guess where that might be!!"

I know it says that it just three of them now, but that doesn't necessarily doesn't mean that they can't hire labor to do the composite work if they plan on building here in the States. That is why I was wondering where production was going to take place. My guess would be Asia. But I didn't want to assume anything.


Haven't read the article but

It would be asian rim production (Quan of contract design) and aftermarket /OE hubs. There would have been lots of press had they been producing in the US.


Jim and Beverly were with EDGE / ENVE after other bike- stops... That's a couple of people that know the industry well.

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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

Bev also worked closely with Simon Smart when the SES Enve range was being designed. She knows her onion - being a woman and the CEO was not some sort of symbolic gesture.

tharmor
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by tharmor

Good luck at that price point.

russianbear
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by russianbear

Do we really need another heavy (and expensive) pair of carbon clinchers?

bombertodd
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by bombertodd

"that it promises will rattle the established market leaders by being faster, lighter and less expensive."

I read this and thought they would be around $1,000. Anyone else think that before reading the price?




SLCBrandon wrote:These start up's usually fail in one area, IMO, and that's branding. I can't take them or their product seriously when it looks like a friends kid taking design classes at the local Community College did their "logo".

Pay a real designer the money to create a mark and branding theme that conveys that you think you're the best and plan on being around for longer than a few years. I don't care how fast they are, I wouldn't put them on any of my bikes, as is.


I agree. I think their logo is pretty ugly compared to others. Hopefully they use stickers on the outside that can be removed. However that means that there will be less visable logos out on the roads.

by Weenie


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