Farsport cyclecross rims

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wetpaint
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by wetpaint

My Revolution Wheelworks 50mm tubulars are Gigantex rims, I would assume they're using the same company for the Rev-33s as well

pushstart
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by pushstart

I am about to order a set of wheels built with the FSC50-CS-24 rim, which is the (new?) 24mm-wide and 50mm-deep "cyclocross" rim from Farsports. I am interested in trying out the wider rim profile for handling (this has a 17mm internal width, so it's not the 18mm that November Bicycles seems to think is the sweet spot, but it's wider than my XR300s); I rather doubt I will be able to detect something special about it in the aero department, but coming from 30mm alloys, I imagine/hope the deeper wheels will provide something noticeable at higher speeds. At 500g +/- 15 (hopefully minus!) these are not very light rims, so I'm hoping that the handling and aero benefits make them worth keeping on the bike. (Probably a 44mm deep version would be a good compromise.) The wheelset will be 1470 +/- 30, so those (ED) must be some light hubs.

I am glad to see some attention paid to braking surface; these have the (new?) high-temp-tollerant (220F) braking surface. They apparently use the same blue pads that others have been mentioning on the RBR thread. (Some suspect these are the same as the Reynolds pads, I guess?) I don't suspect I would be comfortable taking any carbon clinchers on real mountain rides, but I would like to have a wheelset that I knew could more than withstand the rolling hills / foothills in the region.

To be clear, I plan to run this with road tires. And, if I can get the tape to stick, etc. they'll be road tubeless.

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Leroy424
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by Leroy424

I've got a set of these. Nice overall wheels look good and I have had no issues so far. I got the tubless version and am running them with hutchinson fusions and they mounted up perfect. I've got about 200 miles on them so far with no issues but fingers crossed.

pushstart
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by pushstart

Oh, that's great to hear. Yeah, I know some people ordered them w/o spoke holes in rim bed (I assume that is same as "tubeless version"?); that sounded tempting but I was nervous about not being able to service them (replace a spoke, etc.) myself. I have read some reports (for other wheels) that Stans yellow tape has a hard time gripping some of these CF surfaces, but I'm hoping this won't prove to be an issue.

I'll report back with impressions when I've had a chance to ride these.

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BobDopolina
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by BobDopolina

pushstart wrote: They apparently use the same blue pads that others have been mentioning on the RBR thread. (Some suspect these are the same as the Reynolds pads, I guess?).


They certainly are not.

Basalt is not the answer. It peels and flakes over time. The real answer is in high temp materials like Reynolds CTg.
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pushstart
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by pushstart

BobDopolina wrote:They certainly are not.


Oh? What's the difference? (I don't know one way or another; it was suggested [by someone on the internet, which never lies] that these are the same.)

BobDopolina wrote:Basalt is not the answer. It peels and flakes over time. The real answer is in high temp materials like Reynolds CTg.


I agree that basalt is not the answer. These high-temp-tolerant braking surfaces are *not* basalt braking surfaces.

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BobDopolina
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by BobDopolina

pushstart wrote:
BobDopolina wrote:They certainly are not.


Oh? What's the difference? (I don't know one way or another; it was suggested [by someone on the internet, which never lies] that these are the same.


They are not made by the same factory. The compounds used are not the same hence they are different pads.

It's not terribly difficult to colour match pads to give the impression that they are something they are not. That would be the case here.
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pushstart
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by pushstart

BobDopolina wrote:They are not made by the same factory. The compounds used are not the same hence they are different pads.

It's not terribly difficult to colour match pads to give the impression that they are something they are not. That would be the case here.


What are the compounds used by the Reynolds pads and what are the compounds used for these pads -- i.e. can you be more specific for the sake of furthering knowledge on the topic? And what are the implications of these different compounds: Does one dissipate more heat than another? Does one wear faster than another? Is one louder than another? Perform better in the wet than another? Etc.

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BobDopolina
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by BobDopolina

pushstart wrote:
BobDopolina wrote:They are not made by the same factory. The compounds used are not the same hence they are different pads.

It's not terribly difficult to colour match pads to give the impression that they are something they are not. That would be the case here.


What are the compounds used by the Reynolds pads and what are the compounds used for these pads -- i.e. can you be more specific for the sake of furthering knowledge on the topic? And what are the implications of these different compounds: Does one dissipate more heat than another? Does one wear faster than another? Is one louder than another? Perform better in the wet than another? Etc.


All good questions.

The actually chemistry is protected by the brands and their suppliers. and, as I don't own these brands, I neither have access to nor, if I did, would I publish it in an open forum.

The differences between pads are pretty much all of the above in terms of performance. We've been focused on heat dissipation in our testing with dry/wet performance being next and brake squeal a go/ no go factor.

We, with our pad supplier and a local assembly factory, tested several open mold rims as well as the rims we supply for our OE customers and one VERY well known name brand. We found that with the open mold rims it was prudent to use the pads they supplied as they were best matched with the specific resins used each individual open mold vendor and performed well but not always the best. For warranty purposes I'd still suggest using the pads supplied.

The OE rims we tested used High Tg materials and once we determined that there was a lot of latitude in terms of pads used we were able to move past heat and look at other factors to best pair pads to rims. Our pads supplier then tweaked the compounds a little and we made our final recommendation.

Field testing was then done which bore out the lab tests but with a limited number of pads as the point was not testing for testing sake but to pair a compound to a specific rim.

I know that doesn't directly answer your question but the fact is I can't for the reasons I mentioned above and because I'm not a chemist so I can't say in any meaningful way.

What I can say is that there are differences in the aspects you mentioned and pad compound, when paired to specific rims does yield different results.
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pushstart
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by pushstart

Awesome -- thanks for posting that detailed response. This was interesting and I think very generally helpful advice.

I find much of this to be a very murky world, especially wrt these overseas factories and the desire for domestic brands and resellers to conceal their suppliers, etc.

And of course there are real (or at least anecdotal) safety concerns at the heart of this, which definitely ups the stakes.

pushstart
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by pushstart

Got the new wheels in. Working with Farsports was a great experience.

In the end, I'm glad I bought the complete wheelset as opposed to building the rims myself. It was cheaper (<$700 shipped for ED hubs + Sapim CX Ray spokes) and the build quality looks great (wheels true, alloy nipples are not chipped up like they always end up when I build them myself, tensions sound good/even, etc.).

I'm running these tubeless (2 layers of Stans yellow tape). My Hutchinson Fusion 3 tubeless tires (that I took off my XR300 rims) were trivially easy to mount on the rim (by hand). Not so easy to seat, though (I only have a floor pump; I almost gave up on the rear wheel) -- probably easier with new tires, but I think in general the bead socket is not super tight on these (having the wide internal rim width probably doesn't help there).

Can't speak to the ride (and I only have experience with alloy rims, so my perspective won't be very helpful), but so far am pleased with the purchase experience & apparent quality of the product. My only error was not realizing that the ED hubs are 11-speed and so I need to swing by a local shop to pick up a spacer before I will be able to actually ride these tomorrow.

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tharmor
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by tharmor

The bike looks fantastic. Is the frame also from FarSports?

pushstart
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by pushstart

tharmor wrote:The bike looks fantastic. Is the frame also from FarSports?


Thank you! I agree; it's not a very fancy build, but it looks nice :) The frame is a Motobecane LeChampion CF. They are selling a frameset from bikesdirect.com for $599 (last I checked). I am sure Farsports has a cheaper (and probably lighter) frame option, but I had read great reviews of this frame -- and I'm very happy with it. -- I had the fork & rest of the build from my previous frame.

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