Weight Weenies

Does anyone have more information on the forthcoming wider profile wheels soon to hit the open mold scene in China? All I have found is this from Real Design's Facebook page ::

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=363558553664231&set=a.363558376997582.82308.107252499294839&type=3

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The only open mold that I have found to be currently available is from Farsports (aka Xiamen Far Sports Co., Ltd.) is offering a 50mm deep, 23mm wide carbon tubular rim that the company markets as a cyclocross wheelset. The 25mm wide rims from real-designs sounds interesting but seeing as they will only have 'samples' in July for testing does not lend well to products being available anytime soon.

The thing is, Real Design isn't manufacturing that rim, they're only buying it from who does. That is the question I want answered. Which manufacturer in China will be molding these rims?

Gigantex.

This was an email response that I just got from Real Design in regards to the rim on their Facebook page::

"The photo of the wide tubulars on the Facebook page are 45mm deep.

We have samples coming in 45, 55, and 80mm depths. Please keep in mind that these are samples for our testing and no determination has been made as to whether they will make it into the 2013 product range and at what depths and prices."

Could be cool.

I don't consider 23mm that wide. Zipp FC are 28.5mm at widest, Bontrager D3 27mm, Hed Stinger 28mm...

23mm is kind of an in between size of the latest aero technology and the old deep V designs.

But I can imagine that the design in general, would provide aero benefit over a regular deep V carbon wheel considering what we know now from the big boys.

In fact, I wouldn't mind a set of these in clincher for training. I currently run Zipp 303 FC tubies for racing, and a regular set of Chinese/Taiwanese deep V 50mm clinchers for training. What a huge PITA it is changing wheels is due to the the brake width adjustment. I have to undo the screw, re-adjust the brake/cable width because the lever/screw can't provide enough to go from one to the other.

Be interested to see how this goes.

This sure looks like the source to me: http://www.bev-intl.com/e-catalog/09/p6.htm 30mm, 45mm, 55mm, and 80mm deep 25mm wide rims. They look to be more akin to the new wide profiles we are seeing from the major manufacturers rather than a V profile.

Wookieopolis wrote:This sure looks like the source to me: http://www.bev-intl.com/e-catalog/09/p6.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; 30mm, 45mm, 55mm, and 80mm deep 25mm wide rims. They look to be more akin to the new wide profiles we are seeing from the major manufacturers rather than a V profile.

THIS is why I asked here on WW. Perfect! Thanks.

Wookieopolis wrote:This sure looks like the source to me: http://www.bev-intl.com/e-catalog/09/p6.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; 30mm, 45mm, 55mm, and 80mm deep 25mm wide rims. They look to be more akin to the new wide profiles we are seeing from the major manufacturers rather than a V profile.

Yes, website them. For example 45mm by 23.5mm width for the clincher. Interesting.

http://www.bev-intl.com/wheel-set-bwr-129.htm

I just emailed them to see if they sell direct or if they only deal with distributors (wheel companies). I am anxious to find out the answer.

Bev are a trading company (= reseller)

Maximum spoke tension of those rims by Gigantex is between 110-120kgf. Possibly ok for a front but that seems like there's a big risk for spokes to pull through the rim on the rear. Seems like they realized the weight was going to be high so they had to remove it from the spoke bed and compromise max kgf. I believe at least 180 is what is considered "standard"

I heard back from BEV and it was a bit disappointing. First, they were assuming that I was a business looking to resell, which of course, I'm not. Second, there is a minimum purchase order of 50 pieces (not sure if that's complete sets or not). However, just out of curiousity's sake I asked if I met the 50 piece minimum what the cost would be, and on the 80mm tubular, it was $178 USD.

Not bad at all. Now I just wish they had a distributor (which they don't - I asked that too).

When you look at their website - they have a wide range of products form gloves through cnc items to CF frames and rims.

This is a trading company/middle man not the manufacturer

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Indeed, by the looks of things, you are correct.

Nevertheless, these wheels must be available in some other avenue. I was impressed that the Weenies were able to figure it out this far, so keep digging. I know that there is a solution.

Either way - thanks for the help!