Legit Source for Chinese Carbon Tubular Rims

[dremeister]

Hi all,
First post here.

I'm giving serious thought to the idea of building up a set of carbon tubulars to a Powertap rear hub and a bikehubstore front hub but don't know where to source the rims from. I plan on using the build for crit racing and training.

There are a lot of sellers on ebay who sell carbon tubular rims, has anyone had experience with any of them?
I checked the more reputable sellers, dengfu, farsports, etc... but it seemed most of them only sell complete wheelsets rather than just rims.

(For the record I'm not looking for a pre-built wheelset and I'm not looking for clinchers. I'm looking for carbon tubular rims - preferably 23-25mm wide and 38mm deep. I've looked around the forums but haven't found any topics specifically about building wheels with chinese carbon tubulars.)

Cheers,
Andre

[perwjensen]

Farsports.com send them an email and let them know which rim you want. Two 50mm rims were ~$277 earlier this year.

[LouisN]

I had great service from Carbon Cycles on Ebay.
Rims come from Flybike Sports.

Louis

[Zigmeister]

Just my two cents. But my experience with carbon chinese rims, hit/miss. I have a set of 40mm aero clinchers, still holding up well.

Had a set of 56mm tubulars, the spokes started to pull the nipples through the holes causing cracks...so much for the $400 rims for the set. Wheelset is trashed, and there is no such thing as a warranty.

Spend the extra $400 per rim for about $800, and have another brand of rim to build wheels. Flo, Boyd, November. They all have their own molds and will stand behind their product, and offer just rims/complete builds or custom.

Don't bother with cheap Chinese rims. I learned the hard way costing me a lot of money/time etc..wasted.

Good luck.

[Multebear]

Just my two cents. But my experience with carbon chinese rims, hit/miss. I have a set of 40mm aero clinchers, still holding up well.

Had a set of 56mm tubulars, the spokes started to pull the nipples through the holes causing cracks...so much for the $400 rims for the set. Wheelset is trashed, and there is no such thing as a warranty.

Spend the extra $400 per rim for about $800, and have another brand of rim to build wheels. Flo, Boyd, November. They all have their own molds and will stand behind their product, and offer just rims/complete builds or custom.

Don't bother with cheap Chinese rims. I learned the hard way costing me a lot of money/time etc..wasted.

Good luck.

Sorry to say, but this is totally BS. I don't know about other Chinese vendors, but Farsports are really good and the customer service is perfect.

I've build 3 sets of Chinese carbon wheels from Farsports rims, and all of them are still holding up and running nicely. Several friends took my advice and bought from Farsports as well. All of the wheels are holding up fine. One had a rear wheel with nipple popping out of the rim. He took a picture and Farsports shipped a new rim free of charge both for rim and shipping. Perfect customer service.

Zigmeister, I don't know where you bought yours, but your hit/miss statement definitely doesn't apply to Farsports.

There are countless of experiences here on WW with Farsports. No bad reviews at all. Of all the reviews I've read, people either get top quality or a replacement product.

Kyle Fu is very friendly and easy to deal with. Answers emails within 24 hours: sales2@farsports.cn

[kulivontot]

Wheelsfar.com (farsports web store) and light-bicycle.com are popular around here.

[Zigmeister]

Just my two cents. But my experience with carbon chinese rims, hit/miss. I have a set of 40mm aero clinchers, still holding up well.

Had a set of 56mm tubulars, the spokes started to pull the nipples through the holes causing cracks...so much for the $400 rims for the set. Wheelset is trashed, and there is no such thing as a warranty.

Spend the extra $400 per rim for about $800, and have another brand of rim to build wheels. Flo, Boyd, November. They all have their own molds and will stand behind their product, and offer just rims/complete builds or custom.

Don't bother with cheap Chinese rims. I learned the hard way costing me a lot of money/time etc..wasted.

Good luck.

Sorry to say, but this is totally BS. I don't know about other Chinese vendors, but Farsports are really good and the customer service is perfect.

I've build 3 sets of Chinese carbon wheels from Farsports rims, and all of them are still holding up and running nicely. Several friends took my advice and bought from Farsports as well. All of the wheels are holding up fine. One had a rear wheel with nipple popping out of the rim. He took a picture and Farsports shipped a new rim free of charge both for rim and shipping. Perfect customer service.

Zigmeister, I don't know where you bought yours, but your hit/miss statement definitely doesn't apply to Farsports.

There are countless of experiences here on WW with Farsports. No bad reviews at all. Of all the reviews I've read, people either get top quality or a replacement product.

Kyle Fu is very friendly and easy to deal with. Answers emails within 24 hours: sales2@farsports.cn

ROFL...right. So you admittedly said you had a spoke pulling through one of the rims?!?!?! Hey, that is exactly what happened to my two tubulars?!?! So how it is BS?? You made my point for me.

Oh, and that doesn't include the one tubular when I first bought them, with UD layer, that had bubbles under the top/UD layer right from the factory "new". I saw that in 2 minutes upon taking it out of the box. Great QC over there!

So, 3 tubular rims from these guys, all failed/had problems. Fantastic.

Hence, why I have my Tune hubs for sale in the sale section. Done with these custom builds with a Chinese Rim. Use a company that will stand behind their product, in a timely manner, that built/designed the rim/hub and will support that.

Got a set of Reynolds Strike SLG now and as I said, I still have a set of 40mm Chinese clincher "aero" rims custom built, still going strong. Alchemy Elf front hub, Jeremy replaced the ORL UL with a DT240S and CXRay. No problem so far.

So people can take what I say with a grain of salt. They can also believe in fairies and unicorns as well. Until it all goes wrong/bad, guess you won't know and can think whatever you want.

Just giving another side to the story with far east rims from China.

Thanks.

[Multebear]

Spoke popping out if rim is the only issue with Farsport wheels, that I've heard of among friends and teammates. And counting all the rims together, that would be around 30 rims. 1 out of 30 isn't a problem as long, as the vendor stands behind the product. And as I mentioned, Farsports sent a new rim totally free of charge. So I don't see the problem.

I have no doubt, that the QC isn't as good on Chinese rims, as european or american rims. But as I mentioned, Farsports replaced the rim no questions asked. So I really don't se the problem with rims from Farsports.

I'm not saying, that you didn't have one or two bad experiences with Chinese vendors. I'm just saying, if you stick to the vendors with a good reputation, you'll be fine.

[Bluechip]

I bought a couple of Farsports rims and I'm having an issue with one of them. Very minor issue. Some resin or something broke of from the inside of the rim causing a very annoying rattle. They are replacing the rim but will not cover the shipping ($40). They say it's past the 3 month time limit on free shipping. The rim is still completely ridable if you are using headphones. I've even offered to buy two more rims in hoping to get the replacement rim added to that orders shipment. They said they would but I'd still have to pay the extra $15 shipping. So I am happy with the product and so so on the service.

Multebear- How long after purchase did you have a problem with the wheel?

[Multebear]

Multebear- How long after purchase did you have a problem with the wheel?

Wasn't me, it was a teammate. I'm not sure, will ask him next time I see him...

[fabriciom]

I have 2 sets of the cheapest rims I found on aliexpress built with Novatec hubs and sapim spokes. 0 problems. Did upgrade the bearings to name brand stuff.