FarSports 38mm Carbon Clincher Review Thread, The

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carlislegeorge
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by carlislegeorge

spliid wrote:Are you people ordering via email with Kyle or velobuild? Approx ordered price on these wheels?


I only wanted their lightest weight rims and am going build locally with my hub of choice, so I ordered direct from FarSports via email. Had to wait until the new year was over, but they responded to my order quickly and my stuff is in transit (made it to POE in NY today).

by Weenie


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spliid
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by spliid

Alright thx.

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carlislegeorge
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by carlislegeorge

Update - I received my rims today...purchased late night 2/19, delivered 2/25 to Washington DC. FSL38-CM ultralight with basalt braking. Actual weight 382 grams each. Quality on visual inspection looks good, no immediately discernible defects. Am going to have these built with Novatec SL hubs (A291SB-SL and F482SB-SL) and Sapim cx-ray spokes. Will post real review after riding.
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elvis
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Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2010 2:45 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

by elvis

I've been looking at the FarSports 38 clinchers for a while now and have noticed they are using CX-Delta spokes now vs. the CX-Rays. Anybody know what the differnce is?

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WMW
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by WMW

They appear to be the only ones using them and they are listed as the same weight as CX-Rays. So... I don't have a clue what the difference is... unless they aren't Sapim spokes at all, but rather "clones" from a Chinese manufacturer.
formerly rruff...

Keetoo
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Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:37 pm

by Keetoo

Received my 38 mm. Clincher today, looking great and weight in at 1241 gram. Set them up with veloplugs red and conti 4000s (used ones, so they got on easy) spinning them up for the first ride tommorrow. I post my findings after that.

Beancouter
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by Beancouter

Mine now shipped; less than 2 days to make it to the UK ---- parcel tracking now says "handed to customs" ..... Joy! Will be interesting to see how long to make it through UK borders and onto my doorstep!

Keetoo
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Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:37 pm

by Keetoo

Rode 2 times with the wheels. Stiff and light. Only rode them on the flat. No hills over here unfortunatly. they Look great in my bike. Whitin 2 weeks i am going to ride a so called cyclo with around 900 vertical meters in 90 kilometers.

hereby a picture of the bike:

Image
Last edited by Keetoo on Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:39 am, edited 3 times in total.

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carlislegeorge
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by carlislegeorge

FSL38-CM rims w/Novatec SL hubs and Cx-Ray spokes, (built locally to 1264 grams)
Here's how they look mounted for first time today...

Image

upside
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Location: USA

by upside

Very nice bike. I too have a set of 38's and rebuilt the rear with a Dura Ace 9000 hub. So far so good.. they spin up nice and brake quite well in dry conditions. I did switch out the FarSports blue brake pads to the Reynolds blue pads. Now they brake much better and quite. I live in New Hampshire and should be given these wheels some elevation in April and will report back.

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carlislegeorge
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by carlislegeorge

I put on the Black Prince pads, and am going to put on first miles over the next few days, and report back here with first impressions.
2011 Tarmac Pro SL3 Project Black (gone but not forgotten)
2012 Parlee Z5 SLi (just because)
2014 Colnago C59 (why not)

Keetoo
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Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:37 pm

by Keetoo

very curious about your impressions carlislegeorge, thinking on buying them too. have you also driven with the original blue pads, so you can compare them ?

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carlislegeorge
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by carlislegeorge

Okay, did my first real ride today and can provide some impressions.

Let me start with giving my frame of reference for comparison - I've been riding only DA 7900-24 tubeless wheels with Maxxis tires at about 90F / 95R for the last 18 months, nice solid wheelset. These new wheels are built from Farsports ultralight 38mm rims (20.5mm wide), Novatec SL hubs 20/24 spokes (1263 grams total weight) with Veloflex Corsa 23s on them inflated to 110F / 115R for this ride. Also installed SwissStop Black Prince brake pads. I go about 185 lbs after a relatively sedentary winter. Not a racer but not a total slug, BB category recreational rider who did 3K miles last year. This was just a break-in ride doing about 36 miles on a MUT in Northern Virginia, so no rough roads or steep hills requiring much braking were experienced yet. Temps in the 50s, sunny day with quartering/side winds all the way.

General impressions, they spin up / accelerate quickly and hold speed well on flats. Maintaining speed on rolling hills, and pushing it on the uphills, I was rewarded for the effort . No wheel "chatter" or extraneous noises noticed, but I had my ears partially covered, so a closer look at that aspect later. Didn't rub the wheels on brakes or frames even one time, no matter how much I was jerking the bike back and forth while pulling / pedaling hard. So, plenty "stiff" and very comfortable (although I'll play around with tire pressure a bit). Hub noise minimal and not annoying, but I had a little extra grease added during the build, and quieter is my preference. Braking was really nice, firm and smooth, comparable to or perhaps even better than the D-A alloys, but I didn't do any long or steep downhills, and real hard braking was done only a couple of times to test effectiveness and braking noise.

For purposes of Just Riding Along, there's no real performance improvement between the DA C24s and these new wheels. In fact, it's hard to beat that tubeless set up for all around comfort and sense of reliability.

Pushing hard is where I noticed the difference with the new wheels. At a higher level of exertion, they just felt faster in each aspect, and my efforts were rewarded. Probably some placebo effect involved, and it isn't a huge improvement or one that could be quantified, but is to be expected simply based on reducing overall rolling weight in wheels and tires by about 250 grams. These are just first impressions, and I'll report more as I put on the miles.

p.s. They look cool too.
2011 Tarmac Pro SL3 Project Black (gone but not forgotten)
2012 Parlee Z5 SLi (just because)
2014 Colnago C59 (why not)

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carlislegeorge
Posts: 219
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:13 pm

by carlislegeorge

I'll throw up a few close-up pictures here of the wheels mounted with Veloflex Corsa 23 tires just so folks can get some idea of how the width of the rims lines up with a 23mm tire:

Image Image
Image Image
2011 Tarmac Pro SL3 Project Black (gone but not forgotten)
2012 Parlee Z5 SLi (just because)
2014 Colnago C59 (why not)

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



kylefoo
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by kylefoo

cool photoes. George.
FarSports carbon wheels
Email:sales2@farsports.cn
Store:http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1679325, all store enjoys 8% off till 30th Sep.

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