The cost of American company distributed wheels both aluminum and carbon fiber took a VERY steep jump up. Wheels that I was buying for $400 suddenly were $800 or more. The complete line of Campy wheels went to $1200 overnight.
But looking on Ebay we discover that this is being taken advantage of by Chinese companies. Most of these are small companies that are not molding the rims themselves but are obtaining them from the same companies that build the rims for Mavic or Campy. So there is no need to worry about the quality of the rims other than the possibility of some of these small companies using factory second rims. My experience is that they aren't.
When an aluminum wheel is made the rims have the distance from the spoke nipple bed to the rim very closely controlled. But you cannot do that with carbon fiber. The manufacturing process doesn't allow for this and consequently this distance varies slightly. But in wheel building the slight difference is important.
This means that you cannot build a wheel like you do an aluminum wheel where you thread all of the spokes on and then use a spoke screwdriver that allows you to take all of the spokes down closely to tight equally. This makes for a round rim with no high or low spots. You can then try to tighten each spoke the same amount all the way around until you approach full torque. Done correctly a round, true, wheel can be achieved in a very short time.
But the difference in nipple bed thickness doesn't allow for that. If you use a spoke screwdriver you end up with a rim that is badly out of round. So you have to build these wheels almost by feel. The Chinese are extremely adept at this and when you receive these wheels they are very close to true and almost always completely round. Most people would have them installed by a shop where the slight differences can be adjusted out. As these things are shipped shortly after manufacture the nipple beds are still settling in because the spoke tension is very high. So a mm or so out of true isn't unusual. But it is easy to adjust for and since it takes two months after ordering to get them they have bedded in well by the time you receive them and will not change after that.
But as a warning: There can be internal cracks in the rims that will cause them to go out of true when inflated and come back into true as pressure is released. Because of this you should always keep the wheel boxes and packing and if you have any problems with the wheels you should immediately pack them up and send them back with eBay's guarantee. Remember that these Chinese wheel manufacturers may be a man and a wife and they cannot afford to give you a new set of wheels unless forced to, so minimal contacts with them and if they do not respond properly use the Ebay guarantee. Also beware the language differences and do NOT take anything into account. They often refer to a wheel and "a rim". Then if they say they will send you a new rim you CANNOT take it to mean a wheel. You have to be very precise so that you aren't surprised by receiving a rim in the mail.
Now these are usually VERY good wheels. They are much stronger than aluminum wheels, although I've heard otherwise about the most common hubs my experience is that they are VERY well designed with much lower rolling resistance than would be expected. I've flipped the front wheel and come back 10 minutes later with the front wheel still turning. The rear wheel is almost the same though it has four bearings instead of the two in the front wheel.
Also the wheels are true aero sections and not the V-section of aluminum rims. This means that even very deep sections have almost the same reaction to hard side gusts of wind as an old Mavic MA-2 rim would have.
If you are a clincher user you can get a 23 mm wide clincher rim. Or if you want to go tubeless you can get the 25 mm tubeless section with the required well and step sides. The 23 mm's fit 25 mm tires almost perfectly.
So there is a chance that you'll get a sub-par wheel but far more chance that you'll get a superior wheel for a very low price compared to the American wheels built by larger builders using the same components. And the only negative to my mind is the very long time to get them since these small companies build the wheels to order upon receiving and order. And they use Chinese postal service to get them to America which is a lot slower than USPS. Then upon getting to America they have to go through customs. Presently there are no import duties on these wheels but who knows what will happen in the future?
But looking on Ebay we discover that this is being taken advantage of by Chinese companies. Most of these are small companies that are not molding the rims themselves but are obtaining them from the same companies that build the rims for Mavic or Campy. So there is no need to worry about the quality of the rims other than the possibility of some of these small companies using factory second rims. My experience is that they aren't.
When an aluminum wheel is made the rims have the distance from the spoke nipple bed to the rim very closely controlled. But you cannot do that with carbon fiber. The manufacturing process doesn't allow for this and consequently this distance varies slightly. But in wheel building the slight difference is important.
This means that you cannot build a wheel like you do an aluminum wheel where you thread all of the spokes on and then use a spoke screwdriver that allows you to take all of the spokes down closely to tight equally. This makes for a round rim with no high or low spots. You can then try to tighten each spoke the same amount all the way around until you approach full torque. Done correctly a round, true, wheel can be achieved in a very short time.
But the difference in nipple bed thickness doesn't allow for that. If you use a spoke screwdriver you end up with a rim that is badly out of round. So you have to build these wheels almost by feel. The Chinese are extremely adept at this and when you receive these wheels they are very close to true and almost always completely round. Most people would have them installed by a shop where the slight differences can be adjusted out. As these things are shipped shortly after manufacture the nipple beds are still settling in because the spoke tension is very high. So a mm or so out of true isn't unusual. But it is easy to adjust for and since it takes two months after ordering to get them they have bedded in well by the time you receive them and will not change after that.
But as a warning: There can be internal cracks in the rims that will cause them to go out of true when inflated and come back into true as pressure is released. Because of this you should always keep the wheel boxes and packing and if you have any problems with the wheels you should immediately pack them up and send them back with eBay's guarantee. Remember that these Chinese wheel manufacturers may be a man and a wife and they cannot afford to give you a new set of wheels unless forced to, so minimal contacts with them and if they do not respond properly use the Ebay guarantee. Also beware the language differences and do NOT take anything into account. They often refer to a wheel and "a rim". Then if they say they will send you a new rim you CANNOT take it to mean a wheel. You have to be very precise so that you aren't surprised by receiving a rim in the mail.
Now these are usually VERY good wheels. They are much stronger than aluminum wheels, although I've heard otherwise about the most common hubs my experience is that they are VERY well designed with much lower rolling resistance than would be expected. I've flipped the front wheel and come back 10 minutes later with the front wheel still turning. The rear wheel is almost the same though it has four bearings instead of the two in the front wheel.
Also the wheels are true aero sections and not the V-section of aluminum rims. This means that even very deep sections have almost the same reaction to hard side gusts of wind as an old Mavic MA-2 rim would have.
If you are a clincher user you can get a 23 mm wide clincher rim. Or if you want to go tubeless you can get the 25 mm tubeless section with the required well and step sides. The 23 mm's fit 25 mm tires almost perfectly.
So there is a chance that you'll get a sub-par wheel but far more chance that you'll get a superior wheel for a very low price compared to the American wheels built by larger builders using the same components. And the only negative to my mind is the very long time to get them since these small companies build the wheels to order upon receiving and order. And they use Chinese postal service to get them to America which is a lot slower than USPS. Then upon getting to America they have to go through customs. Presently there are no import duties on these wheels but who knows what will happen in the future?
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