Weight Weenies

I think using the words "prone to" is as off base as "catastrophic".

That spinergy's could fail doesnt meant those things came apart easily or frequently and when they did break, it wasnt typically "catastrophic". The ones that had an issue virtually always showed a rack and made noise... You looked and found the problem and replaced em. Almost all of the issues they took care of were like that and it wasnt any sort of large percentage of the wheels...


The only version that had any sort of an issue was fixed early on (they had a clip that held the spokes apart and people rode em after the clips broke). The several editions after that were fine. In fact the UCI (sponsored by a bit wheel company) had to create a special test to get them to fail in a bad way. When they tested them like normal wheels they were stronger than virtually anything else on the market at the time when it came to smashing in to things head on.

There are a couple of pics around that show whole sections broken from crash damage... But trying to imply that it was the nrom for the wheel or that it was a JRA incident is bullsh!t... The wheels are made in large carbon sections, so the broken ones make for dramatic pics. overall, the thing that killed that wheel was another large wheel company paying the uci to screw spinergy...

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Looks like Charles likes the Rev X's. Actually i did too. They were definitely fast wheels (a bit flexy but still within reason). I certainly am not saying they would just fall apart while JRA.

Now, they did fail in 2 different ways than other wheels:

1. when they fail, whether due to crash or other reasons, the fibers will break, which would cause the front hub to fall to the ground and this could cause serious injuries. Wheels with metal spokes are less likely to do this.
2. the spokes tend not to resist local impact very well. I had a set which were transported in a car and the cassette damaged two of the spokes quite easily which basically was the end of Rev X for me.

So much for the Spinergies. WRT the Madfibers, are the spokes just narrow carbon ribbons that woud not withstand rattling from a cassette?

PezTech wrote:I think using the words "prone to" is as off base as "catastrophic".

That spinergy's could fail doesnt meant those things came apart easily or frequently and when they did break, it wasnt typically "catastrophic". The ones that had an issue virtually always showed a rack and made noise... You looked and found the problem and replaced em. Almost all of the issues they took care of were like that and it wasnt any sort of large percentage of the wheels...


The only version that had any sort of an issue was fixed early on (they had a clip that held the spokes apart and people rode em after the clips broke). The several editions after that were fine. In fact the UCI (sponsored by a bit wheel company) had to create a special test to get them to fail in a bad way. When they tested them like normal wheels they were stronger than virtually anything else on the market at the time when it came to smashing in to things head on.

There are a couple of pics around that show whole sections broken from crash damage... But trying to imply that it was the nrom for the wheel or that it was a JRA incident is bullsh!t... The wheels are made in large carbon sections, so the broken ones make for dramatic pics. overall, the thing that killed that wheel was another large wheel company paying the uci to screw spinergy...

I didnt particularly like the rev X. I had one set and thought they were a little rough riding and I was living coastal and didnt like them in cross winds. I traded em for a different wheel set after a few months.

In Montréal yesterday, next to the Garmin's truck:

The other thing to think about is that these wheels are made with tension and multiple spokes. It's no place near a similar design to Spinergy and doesnt deal with load like Rsys... They're pretty similar in that regard to Lightweight and the track record there is pretty good.

Then again, (unlike Lew Reynolds or the Rsys that had immediate issues) Googled broken Madfiber and madfiber failure and found nothing...

I believe they have had a few minor issues where they think they can make things better and have been making running changes from day 1 (nice when you actually make your product in house virtually from scratch), but if there were anything substantial so far (or anything at all really, much less being able to say things like "prone"), the net would have picked it up. And the wheels have been selling for more than a year in reasonable quantities.

Just looking at the UCI wheel approval list and the clinchers are approved but not the tubulars.
Any one have any info about this?

Finally rode my Mad Fibers today - they don't feel as spritely as my Lightweights, but then they don't feel as stiff and jarring either. Cross winds were interesting at times, but nowhere near as bad as I expected for the rim depth, and actually not much worse than the Lightweights.

Generally, VERY impressed and glad I chose them.

Ivan Dominguez also rides them, has tons of miles and has nothing but good things to say about them. personally, i do not like the look soo much.

i friend has them, or he just bought them and have not yet used them. but they are not 100% straight/true. should it be that, or is a little bit of wobbling okay?

laager wrote:They work, but are not without issue.

would love to hear your thoughts on 'issues' - i have about 1.5k on my set and beyond bad tires (i was running mavic tubular tires for most of last season - great clinchers, don't love the tubulars) i could find little to fault beyond what one can fault most light weight wheels (descending isn't as confident, and carbon breaking - while now better than it's ever been before - still isn't quite the same) and at 200 lb (then, lost some weight over the winter) i'm a pretty good yardstick for measuring issues with light equipment.

i could see buying another set in clincher or possibly another tubular set but am going to wait for gen.2 (these people are engineers, there will be a new version someday) + clarity on shimano 11spd before doing anything.

Has anyone tested them in the wind tunnel vs LW/404s?

What happened to that roues artesanales article?

What width tire can the mad fiber tubular accommodate?

I asked the same question previously and they said they ran 28mm on the tubulars for cyclocross before. Btw they just got a new website look, I checked it out after seeing the news on Facebook but there's no new content as far as I can see. Should have spent the time ramping up production column instead...

My guess is the production people and the web people aren't the same...

Kayrehn wrote:I asked the same question previously and they said they ran 28mm on the tubulars for cyclocross before. Btw they just got a new website look, I checked it out after seeing the news on Facebook but there's no new content as far as I can see. Should have spent the time ramping up production column instead...

I got the same response, I was wondering if someone could measure a set of madfibers for us

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