Question about Spinergy RevX

I have been offered a fairly new set of Spinergy RevX wheels and a Zipp909 Disc. I am intersted in the Zipp, but have read some negative reveiws about the Spinergy Rev X from a few years ago. I would appreciate opinions about these wheels. I am a triathlete and ride a Quintana Roo with all DuraAce.
Thanks!
B

Some people collect shoes, others bikes. I seem to collect bike wheels and ride a variety of wheels. One of them is the RevX.

The RevX's have been out of production for a while. There were four main versions (you can tell from the hub) and three versions of the spoke/rim combo on that fourth version of hub.

The short version of this post is that any of the 4th generation hub design RevX's are fine. If you see circlips on the hub, don't get the wheels.

1st Gen: hub has carbon visible on the inside of the hub (between the spokes). No circlips (C-shaped clips). Not recommended.

2nd Gen: hub has flat carbon visible, circlips going around the hub to hold carbon from moving inward on hub. Not recommended.

3rd Gen: hub has two aluminum rings (or caps) on the hub, covering the carbon. On the inside of the hub, the center of the hub is smaller diameter than the part near the spoke. Circlips hold the aluminum ring/cap in place. Not recommended.

4th Gen: Hub has a relatively consistent diameter inside of the spokes. There are three sections of "hub" - the outers and the middle. The middle is a spacer put in place to keep the outer ring/caps from sliding inward. I would ride this wheel (and I sometimes do - it's one of my wheels that I ride).

4th Gen Hub had 3 rim/spoke versions:
1. Regular - regular carbon spokes, regular rim.
2. Lightweight - regular carbon spokes, the non-visible side of the rim is drilled out (the carbon side of the rim, not the side you see when you install a tire), and titanium axles.
3. Superstiff - double carbon layup on the spokes, regular rim, regular axles I think.

Finally from almost the beginning you could get "X-Braces" which were H shaped things that you stuck between the spokes. It sort of made the V of the spoke into an "A".

Superstiff w/X-Braces = stiffest side to side
regular with X-Braces = Superstiff plain
regular = least stiff.

The spokes are very, very strong. They will cut you if you stick your hand in a spinning wheel. However, I've had someone stick their pedal in my front wheel in a race at about 30 mph. It made a huge racket, chipped part of the spoke, and I thought I was going to crash - instead, I managed to place 5th or something in the race (a tight crit on a bumpy, windy course). The wheel is still good many years later (it's the front wheel I sometimes use). They were the favorite wheels for cyclocross for many years - until lighter deep profile rims came out.

I used RevX's exclusively (training, racing) for something like 4 years (4th Gen, I had a superstiff rear with X-Braces and I think a Lightweight front with X-Braces).

If you are doing USCF races, you're supposed to have these "edge" covers on. In a triathalon they are legal without the edge covers.

The wheels cannot be trued and the rear can be "out of true" if someone removed the cassette body and reinstalled it without making sure it went on in the indentical direction. So make sure the wheels are true (like put them in your bike, spin the wheel, and see - the rear should be centered both by the bottom bracket as well as the rear brake, the front should look centered and be straight enough not to hit your brake pads). The rims are a bit wider than some other rims I have so you might have to open your brakes a touch.

I know the cassettes were 9s Ultegras (DA had a different method of attaching to the hub, was not compatible). I don't know Shimano so I don't know if they'd be 10s compatible but I think they would be.

hope this helps,
cdr

Thanks for the great information. That is very helpful.

B

i remember back in the mid-90's these were the rage for racing. i was in lots of races where these were being used, i clearly remember how much noise they would constantly make in crits, a crunching type of pulsating sound whenever anyone would stand or corner...nervewracking to anyone within earshot.
there were also catastrphic failures of these wheels, used to be a website that listed some of them in detail. not suprising, they cannot offer the kind of structural resistance to catastropihic failure that anything with spokes will.
the x-beam stiffeners offerered did not measureably reduce flex as tested by damon rinard.
the main reason these were popular, fad and fashion aside, is at speeds over 30 they were damn aero, convincingly so in a break or descent to those who would watch from behind.

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