Farsports 58 x 28 U shaped rim. A bit too wide for me.

[Bluechip]

I finished my build today and took them for a short 25 mile ride. These rims are wide, maybe too wide. I am using these on a fixed gear conversion of a CAAD4. I built them with an ENO rear hub and a BHS SL85 front hub in 28/24 spoke count. Lasers cross 2 on the rear and CX Rays radially on the front. The tires are Conti GP4000sII in 25mm. I am not using a rear brake because of the eccentric hub makes it difficult. I have an Ultegra 6600 front brake with fresh Reynolds blue pads. The rims measured close to the specs on the website. 27.5mm at the midpoint of the brake track and very close to 30mm overall. The rims were 543g and 554g. Overall built weight not including skewer or bolts was an un WW total of 1742g. The rear Eno Eccentric is no lightweight at 335g. Built with a lighter rear hub could give a satisfactory weight of 1600g or so.

The rim fits the brakes but just barely. They are fully open and have just about 1.5mm clearance on each side. I tried the wheel on a Sram Force 10sp era brake and it had similar clearance. It worked but not very well. If the rim goes out of true in the slightest it will be rubbing. The feel at the levers is not great either. The stopping power seemed on par with my wife's carbon Boyd wheels. The problem is the pads are just too close to the rims for getting enough leverage. I could shave the pads down a bit to get a little more clearance.

At this point I can't recommend the super wide rims for that reason. Until wider brakes start showing up these are just too wide to work well. I knew that was a possibility going in but I was intrigued. The quality of the rims seems very good, much better than I was expecting. The wheels look great. They built up super easy and I never had any problems other than dropping a couple of nipples and spending several minutes shaking each of them out. If they hold up well over the next couple of months or so I may order a set of the 25mm U shaped rims for my CAAD9. They are probably what I should have ordered in the first place.

I may let a friend try the front on his Fuji Norcom with direct mount brakes to see if they have the needed clearance.

[Multebear]

Would you mind showing some pictures of the rims and the clearance problems?

[mariovalentim]

you could use the brake pad that swissstop makes for wide rims, it's thinner just for this sort of problem
http://www.swissstop.com/rimbrakes/flas ... ackprince/

[Bluechip]

Thinner pads are going to help some but but wider brakes would be the best answer. Right now I have about .5-.75 inches of lever travel from open to full braking. For this bike (fixed gear) I think it will be fine but on my road bike I don't think I would be comfortable on downhills (not that I have any here in Houston).

[thp]

That SS conversion looks great! Eno eccentric or eccentric BB?

[Bluechip]

Thanks. It's an Eno Eccentric hub.

[Multebear]

Good pics. How about opening the brake a bit?

[Bluechip]

They are open fully. With no tension on the release lever it doesn't really do anything to open them up.

I shaved the pads down just a bit and it has helped a lot. It's not as much clearance as I would like but it is workable. I get a little more lever travel too which helps. Just riding around the block it feels like I have a little more braking power.

[Multebear]

If you have access to a Shimano 105, 5800 front brake, it might help. It has enhanced brake arch proportions for more tire clearance. I get, that your problem is clearance sideways, but maybe it opens bigger as well.

[Bluechip]

I'll have to hit the bike shops and take a look at the 5800's.

I also started searching on thinner pad holders and found someone in an old post that mentioned Koolstop holders that were thinner but I am having no luck finding them. The ones on the Koolstop sight look normal to me but if we are only talking 1mm it might be hard to tell.

[nlouthan]

Aren't the EE Cycleworks pad holders thinner too?

[Marin]

Ciamillo has super low profile holders.

[kulivontot]

No brakes no problem, amirite?
Why did you decide to go so wide on the rim? Did you happen to measure the rim inner width?

[Bluechip]

While brakes on this bike are not critical in the Houston area, I still prefer to have them working as good as possible. I do ride in central TX often and they come in handy there.

I built this bike up on a lark. I had a CAAD4 frame not being used and my older fixed gear (even older Cannondale) was not as comfortable as I would like. So I moved some things over and had a little fun painting it to give a faux carbon fiber look. I made up some Carbonéllo decals to keep it humorous. I wanted to try out the open mold rims and thought I would go for the newest available. I probably should have stuck with the 25's, but wider is better right? Anyway they look great and seem to be well made. I might try some 25's on another bike soon.

They measured to specs at 19.5mm inner width.

[FIJIGabe]

Hey Bluechip, where do you ride? I ride with the old Planetary group in Houston.

Anyway, have you looked into some of the more modern brake calipers? I see you're using some older Shimano brakes, and 10-speed Force brakes. The wide-rim era is really only properly addressed in the current batch of brake products, so I would advise trying it some of the newer brake calipers.