Hi, Long Time lurker

Question for my first post

Mostly recreational rider about 180lbs with some Vets racing and thinking of swapping my Easton EA90SLX wheelset ~1400gms on my BMC SLR01 presently at 6.7 kg

Are the new American Classic Road Tubeless, reported to be 1179gms, which is not bad for an alloy factory wheelset any good? Stiff or stiffish, reliable?

http://www.amclassic.com/en/products/ro ... beless.php

Sure you could build lighter with Tune hubs or cheaper with gerneric hubs etc but the AC's for ~$1,200 appear to me reasonable
Want to avoid Tublars at this stage

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

I would love to know the same thing, the problem is I don't think there are very many sets of their these wheels or the AC magnesiums available... anywhere..

How are the Easton's holding up? I have seen problems with these breaking spokes and coming out of true with lighter riders than you.
Do you have a decent amount of miles on those?
At 180lbs I would be worried about the Easton slx and the lighter AC wheels.
But riding style and terrain/conditions of the roads you ride plays a big part as well.

_________________
TIME RXR

1179 for tubeless road is pretty damn Good considering the stock Stan's alpha 340 wheelset weighs about 1250 with identical hubs and spoke configuration, so either ac's got some secret ultra spokes or they've got an Alu rim that's 30g lighter than Stan's. Either would be impressive.
Complaints about these ultralight Alu tubeless wheelsets are that the rims are super flexy and require high spoke tensions, which are bad for heavy riders and overall durability. People also seem to dog on AC hub reliability as the bearings seem to seize up over time. Not gonna really be able to beat that for a stock clincher rim at that price, though. I don't think AC sells their rims separately from the hubs, so you'd have to deconstruct the wheelset and find another oddball triplet rear hub. At that weight and that price custom wise you'd have to go with Stan's rims or Chinese carbon clinchers and lightweight hubs.

I think it's pretty hard to go much lighter for clinchers without buying some super exotic stuff.

Thanks for the replies

Gregorio:
Admittedly I've only done a few hundred Km's on the Eastons as yet but found them stiff enough, I think they're better than my Reynold Attack 32mm Carbon Clinchers
I'm more of an older 'tempo' rider than a sprinting animal and tend to ride fairly good roads
My LBS, who I do have some trust in, said that Easton have fixed the issues in the 2011/2012 wheelsets, time will tell

kulivontot:
Yes had also heard various things about AC hubs, hence my question.
I've been told that they don't have bearing seals and therefore the hubs do eventually die
My LBS does have 6 of these wheelsets and they do weigh around the 1180 gms +/- 2-3gms

mjduct:
My LBS owner does have a pair of custom wheels using the AC magnesium rims with Tune hubs (not sure which ones) and Union Ti spokes, I think they're less than 1100 gms but the rims get thrown away every 12 months as they can no longer be trued, and he's barely 65kg !

I've been riding a set of the AM Classic tubeless wheels for about 3 months now. On my scale they weigh 1180 grams minus skewers w/rim tape. I've found them plenty stiff for my use - riding up Utah canyons, but then again I only weigh 145 lbs. The rear hub shell is completely different from the RD205 version they've been using for many years. So far so good. I've been running mine at 90 psi & they do indeed ride very smooth. The 23m rim width might also be helping in that dept. Only downside is my luck with flats, I've gotten a bunch that slime was unable to cork. Ended up installing a tube & washing the green racing stripe off my back. Getting the tubeless tire off & on the rim requires patience & good technique. If rushed it is easy to damage/pull back the special rim bed sealant tape which creates new places for slime to leak out. Once you've got it down, it's not too bad. All in all I'm pretty happy with them.

Clearly these are very light. However, can someone please post a weight for the these wheels in a ride ready format (Wheels + skewers + tires + sealant)? When you do can you please also list the tires and skewers used for the weigh-in.

Thanks in advance

I am 200 lb. and have only had one spoke break in 2.5 years

wheelset w/rim tape 1190g
Hutchinson Fusion tires 2x 309g
1 oz sealant per tire 2x 27.5g

= 1865g + skewers of your choice

Why aren't you using sealant that works well like Stans instead of slime? Stans seals real quick even when you drive a nail through the tire and pull it out. It works so well the schwalbe decided to rebrand Stans instead of making their own for the new Ultremo tubeless.

I have never had a flat with Stans and it has sealed 2 punctures that I know of. I didn't do anything and tires still hold air the same as day one hundreds of miles later.

I've tried both with similar results. Probably boils down to the amount of tire unfriendly junk on my local roads

If you are racing at 180lbs then 200g off wheels aint gonna do much AR.

They are a pretty light and soft rim. Id stick with the SLX's.

_________________
My YT channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/durianriders?feature=mhee" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Follow me on Strava
http://app.strava.com/athletes/254600

the good -

weight wise for an alu' clincher theyre hard to beat. on price or otherwise.

the rim is also impressively wide especially considering the weight. the bead hook must also be of similar design to a stans rim as evident by the "pop" when inflating and also the tire profile, normal 23mm wide tires mount up to these with a much wider profile than on even other normal "wide" rims (firecrest etc).

american classics hub problems are over, it is old news - the rear hub is an excellent design (especially the free hub), the front is a little on the light side and simple with no preload adjustment, and with only 2 tiny bearings but is also impressively light and gives little trouble. in my experiences any free play that develops is easily sorted by a simple strip down and reassemble.

the bad -

the bearings AC supplies with these hubs are not the best. but good quality replacements thom enduro are cheap.

we have had problems with one customers set backing off spoke tension. mostly on the front. i think this is down bad front rim which cant be trued up/pulled round with anywhere near close to even tension. hopefully this gets sorted. the AC brand rep in our area assures me this is an isolated problem.

we have only sold a couple of pairs of these so im still skeptical, they kinda seem too good to be true. would be good to hear from other users if they've had more luck.