What's the consensus on carbon clinchers, seriously?

[dvincere]

If it's a road disc bike, is there any good reason to use an aluminum clincher over a carbon clincher? Besides costs (and costs is a rather weak point considering the prices of imported Chinese goods these days).

[nmrt]

tried a carbon clincher. it was ok. but i could have built an alloy wheelset for the same weight.
if you wanna go carbon, go for tubulars. its that simple.
but if you get a flat, you better be prepared to carry a set a preguled tubular tire.
some even put stans inside thier tubular tires.

[Nicos]

But with carbon you can get a more aero wheelset at the same price. For the aeroweenies

[eric]

Carbon road clinchers haven't yet been made significantly lighter than light aluminium rims (though there are some light carbon 29er MTB rims that can't take road pressures). But they can be made deeper. You can't even find a 50mm deep aluminium rim let alone a 50mm deep clincher that weighs 410g.

[spdntrxi]

how about ride quality ? I think my carbon clinchers are far more comfortable then my Al rims...

Mavic Ksyrium ES vs Enve 3.4

[eric]

If there's any difference at all, carbon clinchers are a bit harsher than aluminium rims with the same tires at the same pressure.

Tire model size and inflation have much more of an effect on ride than the rims. But the deep section carbon rims are stiffer than aluminium rims. I think that is the source of the very slightly rougher ride.

[Megaclocker]

I am very satisfied with my 2012 J-Bend spoke Reynolds Thirty-Two Carbon Clincher

Had Reynolds Assault before (sucked)
Tried Zipp 202 Tubular (well roads are bad here, made a few flats and sold them.) Spare Tubular weight is not worth it.
Still rocking my spare Kinlin XR300 wheelset (1450gr) Bombproof

[kampiakseli]

One of the lightest clincher rim at the moment is Ryde Pulse comp Disc 330gr and it is alloy rim! Only for disc brake. I haven't seen this made with carbon yet.

[rukomasa]

I am very satisfied with my 2012 J-Bend spoke Reynolds Thirty-Two Carbon Clincher

Had Reynolds Assault before (sucked)
Tried Zipp 202 Tubular (well roads are bad here, made a few flats and sold )(((21121221211.) Spare Tubular weight is not worth it.
Still rocking my spare Kinlin XR300 wheelset (1450gr) Bombproof

Sent from my SO-02E using Tapatalk 2

[Causidicus]

.

[Derf]

If we refine the question to whether there are any carbon clinchers which offer acceptable performance and durability compared to a carbon tubular then the answers are numerous, if ignorant of the fact that descending is owned by tubulars, on alloy or carbon. Tubulars own descents. Anyone stating otherwise is a fool.

We get it, you're a tubular apologist. That said, you've not actually helped any reader on a consensus about CCers, anecdotal or not.

[kulivontot]

Neither has any other post in this pointless thread

[fromtrektocolnago]

Personally, I think alloy is better especially when one considers braking, and the cost of carbon pads. If one really wants the lightness of Carbon, then Shimano's solution on the C-24 is the way to go ; carbon with an alloy strip. Carbon is a wonderful material, but it's not the best solution for every application.

[eric]

The $2.50 a pair for FarSports blue pads really puts a crimp in my cycling.

[TheDarkInstall]

Some addition info for the thread, based on my own experiences. I only have experience of Far Sports 38mm Carbon Clinchers, so this info only applies to them absolutely, but may be general info for other carbon clinchers.

-Brake pads need a lot more careful consideration than initially thought. There is not a lot of objective info about what brake pads do and don't work with what rims, and using something unsuitable may cause irrepairable damage. I burnt out two Far Sports rims using Swiss Stop Black Prince pads. Nowhere does it say on the Far Sports site not to use these pads, and Swiss Stop themselves offer no warning or info about the compound of the pads. I now use Far Sports pads, and have no problems with melting the braking surface.

-Carbon Clinchers suffer badly (in comparison to tubulars) from spoke tension issues; this is caused by the need for the tyre to sit very tightly on the rim, which compresses the circumference of the rim, which reduces the radius slightly, causing the spoke tension to drop. This is very pronounced on Carbon Clincher rims, and can be a serious issue if you are using a hub with a low maximum tension rating, combined with a lacing pattern which lends itself to a relatively low NDS tension.

An example of this would be, for example, a hub with a maximum tension of 100kg, using a 1:1 DS/NDS spoke ratio. Building the wheel with the DS at 100kg, would have the NDS sitting at about 50-60kg. Once the tyre gets put on though, this tension drops significantly, to the point where you may lose all effective NDS tension. I know, as this happened to me. There are ways around this, by using lacing patterns which give the NDS a proportionally higher tension, or indeed getting a hub which has a higher maximum tension, but this is an issue with Carbon Clinchers, none-the-less.