Wide rims on a budget

[robeambro]

Hi all, I am on the market for a disc brake deep-ish clincher wheelset (50-60mm). My budget is low-ish, around 1000 of whatever currency (possibly not £ haha) so I thought I’d buy from China or any other cheap avenue. I would like to ride these with 25mm tyres, I don’t want to give up too much comfort.

I’m ignoring rolling resistance from the equation, otherwise we’ll be here talking until 2020 with no solution. What interests me is to find a decently priced wheelset to either maximise speed and comfort (optimal solution) or to at least not be bad at either (ie not doing anything wildly stupid such as putting 28 tyres on a very thin rim)

However, I’ve done some reading and I’ve found a few things (which I will summarise for others who may not know)
- the aerodynamic properties of a wheel are heavily dependent on the tyre fitted on it, to the point that a tyre may even cancel out most of the aero benefit of deeper wheels.
- for aero benefits to be reaped, it is important that the tyre be narrower than the rim, or at least not much wider (there’s a so called 105% rule).
- although the above refers to external rim width, internal width of the rim will affect -among other things- how much your tyre will blow up in size, so it’s important to check that as well.

To be honest I love the looks of deep wheels, but the last thing I want to do is to fork out money for deep wheels which are heavier, more subject to cross winds, arguably less comfortable.. And not even get the aero benefit!

So what are my options here? I’ve already checked Farsports and Yishun, and neither seems to offer a very wide rim.. Is there any other competitively priced option that would be somewhat wider?

[mesomaxl]

Check Lightbicycle - depending on your actual tire width, they offer plenty of variants. Though Farsports is also offering a 28mm external wheelset (or a 45 height, if that is enough).

https://www.wheelsfar.com/gravel-carbon ... dsl-1.html (with DT 350s) in 45x28.
Or https://www.wheelsfar.com/gravel-carbon ... dt240.html (with DT 240s) in 58x28


Lightbicycle has got you covered for 56x30, 46x28 or 55x25 (U-Shape) - depending on your preferred tire choice

https://www.lightbicycle.com/carbon-roa ... r--41~60mm


Too narrow tires will also create a loss in the aerodynamic effect as the rim-bed is not covered by the tire.

If you are set with 25mm anyways, i'd probably aim for the 55x25 U-Shape wheels and fit a 24mm Tire which will most likely fit 25mm true-to-size when mounted on the 18mm internal width.

By the way.. i'm in the same market, only that i look for something with 28mm compatibility

[AJS914]

the aerodynamic properties of a wheel are heavily dependent on the tyre fitted on it, to the point that a tyre may even cancel out most of the aero benefit of deeper wheels.
- for aero benefits to be reaped, it is important that the tyre be narrower than the rim, or at least not much wider (there’s a so called 105% rule).

Heavily? Hambini's test shows a handful of watts difference. His test shows that in general deeper rims are more aerodynamic.

To be honest I love the looks of deep wheels, but the last thing I want to do is to fork out money for deep wheels which are heavier, more subject to cross winds, arguably less comfortable.. And not even get the aero benefit!

If that is the last thing you want then don't get deep wheels and don't worry about aerodynamics. You're post is a contradiction. You need to decide what the priorities are: aero, weight, cross wind performance, comfort. You can't have it all.

[robeambro]

Check Lightbicycle - depending on your actual tire width, they offer plenty of variants. Though Farsports is also offering a 28mm external wheelset (or a 45 height, if that is enough).

https://www.wheelsfar.com/gravel-carbon ... dsl-1.html (with DT 350s) in 45x28.
Or https://www.wheelsfar.com/gravel-carbon ... dt240.html (with DT 240s) in 58x28


Lightbicycle has got you covered for 56x30, 46x28 or 55x25 (U-Shape) - depending on your preferred tire choice

https://www.lightbicycle.com/carbon-roa ... r--41~60mm


Too narrow tires will also create a loss in the aerodynamic effect as the rim-bed is not covered by the tire.

If you are set with 25mm anyways, i'd probably aim for the 55x25 U-Shape wheels and fit a 24mm Tire which will most likely fit 25mm true-to-size when mounted on the 18mm internal width.

By the way.. i'm in the same market, only that i look for something with 28mm compatibility

Thanks! That's a lot of info. I missed the Farsports cause they put them in "Gravel" and they don't appear when you click on "Road Disc".. Duh.

Oh I'm not dead set on 25mm, I just had assumed that finding cheap chinese rims wide enough for 28mm tyres would be even more difficult!

[robeambro]

the aerodynamic properties of a wheel are heavily dependent on the tyre fitted on it, to the point that a tyre may even cancel out most of the aero benefit of deeper wheels.
- for aero benefits to be reaped, it is important that the tyre be narrower than the rim, or at least not much wider (there’s a so called 105% rule).

Heavily? Hambini's test shows a handful of watts difference. His test shows that in general deeper rims are more aerodynamic.

To be honest I love the looks of deep wheels, but the last thing I want to do is to fork out money for deep wheels which are heavier, more subject to cross winds, arguably less comfortable.. And not even get the aero benefit!

If that is the last thing you want then don't get deep wheels and don't worry about aerodynamics. You're post is a contradiction. You need to decide what the priorities are: aero, weight, cross wind performance, comfort. You can't have it all.

Re: Hambini, I understand your point, but this doesn't mean that I want to throw aero benefits out the window by choosing a too shallow rim for 25-28mm tyres.

Re: the second observation, I have clearly stated that my objective would also be to not do anything absurdly stupid, I am well aware of the fact that I can't have it all - I just said that I don't want to be sacrificing all of them at once by some stupid mistake. Maybe I didn't explain myself well.