Open mold wide profile carbon wheels

[rainerhq]

I asked HongFu about this price difference and she said that these are from another factory and their product is better

[petepeterson]

I think some of them like dengfu and Ican have ebay stores.

[tharmor]

I asked HongFu about this price difference and she said that these are from another factory and their product is better

And I was under the impression that all of the trading companies (retailers) were sourcing the rims from FlyBike (http://www.hz-bikes.com). I'm calling HongFu's bluff. I don't believe that there are two different factories making the exact same product for different trading companies, at different price points.

Someone please educate me if I'm wrong.

[eric]

There could be differences in the QC that the parts get, or binning of the rims. I.e. the best rims go to larger trading houses, the out of spec/over weight ones go to guys who sell them on ebay.

I expect the only way to find out is to buy multiple sets from each seller and compare.

[Zigmeister]

The rims are all likely coming from 1-2 manufacturers, then they just resell them. For the 40mm/56mm HongFu version, that is one manufacturer. Then you have the 45mm LightBicycle, another manufacturer. DengFu, yet another manufacturer. Doubt these guys are laying up carbon themselves, although their websites give you the impression they are. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong on that.

Often in China, the manufacturer only deals with the Chinese resellers, who then deal with the public/payment issues.

Also, the rim I got off eBay to replace my faulty HongFu one, no issues whatsoever. It was the rear 24h. It was restrung up with the Tune Mag 170 hub and CxRay to 136kpf approximately. Solid, no issues, rode it in a intense race last weekend, they worked flawless and rode great.

My local wheelbuilder, knowing I had some issues with the rims and the actual build itself from another place, looked them over real well, made sure everything was ordered correctly for spoke length, the proper angle of spoke drilling and made sure it was built as perfect as possible and no issues with the rim/hub/spoke themselves were found. The original front that he relaced from HongFu, as well as my 40mm Aero from them, we also relaced/tensioned up higher to to around 135kpf range. All are riding great so far.

Of course, my Alchemy Orc UL NDS bearing took a dump. So, got a puller and some replacement bearings, and just swapped both Enduro 6901 with new ones. Made a home made press to put them in. Nice and smooth again. Pretty sad the Enduro bearing only lasting 800 miles...but anywho, nothing to do with the rims/build itself. Next time, I get some EZO bearings and hope for the best.

[wynkendeword]

@tharmor I did some research on ebay sellers, though not extensive, looking for something within my wants/needs, i.e. 50–60mm, bulging wide U-shape tubular. From what I found sellers had either clincher or the older 'V' style profile in tubular. Definitely interested in any links to ebay sellers with something more to my specs, though.

[tharmor]

I've exchanged a few emails with one of the more prominent eBay sellers about where the rims are sourced, and he/she admitted to me that indeed their 27mm wide rims in the 30/40/56/86mm depths all come from Flybike. I was concerned about the QC, but then I remembered that with eBay you have buyers protection, and this particular seller (although in China) has made 2,363 eBay transactions with an overall buyer's rating of a 99.6%.

Personally, I feel that an eBayer has more to lose when an issue arises, than say HongFu, when buying direct. Look at what happened with @zigmeister - bought direct and HongFu essentially ignored both him and PayPal. It would appear that they assume that an upset customer here and there won't damage their bottom line too much. On eBay, that is a much, much different story.

I'm currently going back and forth between tubular and clincher. I'm tired of riding clinchers, and I want to change it up a bit. Unfortunately that means buying tubular tires too, which are not very cheap.

[SergeduTemps]

Pulled the trigger on some 56mm 27mm wide rims. Got them off eBay for 350 shipped. Looks the same as the UAM/HongFu and probably is.

Will get them built locally with some hubs from BikeHuBStore.


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk

[bombertodd]

Post some pictures when you get them.

[WMW]

Of course, my Alchemy Orc UL NDS bearing took a dump. So, got a puller and some replacement bearings, and just swapped both Enduro 6901 with new ones. Made a home made press to put them in. Nice and smooth again. Pretty sad the Enduro bearing only lasting 800 miles...but anywho, nothing to do with the rims/build itself. Next time, I get some EZO bearings and hope for the best.

Yikes... but don't blame the bearings. Probably preload. Get some nuts that just fit over the axle and clamp with your QR. Make sure you have just a touch of play.

[wynkendeword]

Two sets of the HongFu 700x56x27mm tubular wheelset arrived here in Vancouver, Canada from Ping Shan District, Shenzhen, China today, March 11, six days after I paid in full for them, and exactly three weeks after sending a deposit to have them laced up on Chosen hubs with bladed spokes. One set for me (all black), one set for a friend (red hubs)













For full photoset, with descriptions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffwerner ... 239764613/

Looks good so far, some minor cosmetic blemishes. Rather painless buying process, and very responsive sales rep throughout (approx. 20 email thread over a few weeks). Total price for two sets of wheels, with four sets of brakepads (included), six extra spokes and two sets of skewers (requested for an extra $14.20), was $1214 (US). Included in that was HongFu's required 4.5% PayPal surcharge and $120 shipping (it would have been $80 for one wheelset). With PayPal currency conversion on March 5, 2014 the grand total came to $1376.74 (CDN), i.e. $688.37 CDN for one ready-to-roll set.

I'll post a review after my next steps this month: check spoke tensions, buy and glue tubulars, race them.

The weights pictured above are for bare wheels, without skewers / tires / glue / cassette:
Front: 632g.
Rear: 771g.
Total: 1,403g.

For comparison:
Rear Wheels (bare)
771g HongFu 58mm x 27mm tubular with CX Ray bladed spokes, Chosen hubs 2014
911g Specialized Roval 60mm Clincher OEM 2013
1102g Shimano R500 Clincher 2013
1137g Zipp 808 Tubular w/ PowerTap 2010

Front Wheels (bare)
632g HongFu 58mm x 27mm tubular with CX Ray bladed spokes, Chosen hubs 2014
699g Specialized Roval 60mm Clincher OEM 2013
839g Shimano R500 Clincher 2013

[tharmor]

That photo stream was money. Many thanks for that.

[cycloxer]

I bought something a little different as a pair of trainers. These are kind of like a Zipp 202 copy:

30mm deep x 25mm wide clinchers
actual weight is 1,530 grams per pair, within 10 grams of a Ksyrium Elite S wheelset
hubs are Novatec
spokes are CN Mac Aero 494
tire shown mounted is a Michelin Pro 4 Comp, 150 tpi measuring 23mm













These wheels are pretty simple, well built, not too flashy, and not too expensive.

[tharmor]

And who makes them?

[cycloxer]

I am not sure of the exact manufacturer of the rims, but the built wheels came from China via carbon-cycle on fleabay