Chinese Carbon Rims - Six Month Review

Devotees of the Bike Otago blog will remember that about ages ago we brought in four pairs of tasty no-name Chinese carbon rims, with the idea of testing their durability and strength compared to the usual branded (and much more expensive) alternatives. After six months of hard riding the results are in, and we're universally impressed.

We had two CX and two mountain wheelsets built up, keeping one CX and one mountain set for ourselves and selling the other two sets. Here's what we, and the owners, have to say:

Shop CX set - ridden on Kashi's Switchback CX bike

Kashi says - 'They're good. Really light, super stiff, built up easily and have had no problems at all. They're plain looking which you might like or you might not, but the quality is great'

Customer's CX set - owned by Timo 

"No complaints except I am sick of people asking me about them. Every time I ride the bike. Having deep carbon wheels is like having a Fat Recumbent. Everyone wants to know "how much", " how good", " how light", "where from"... I do have to run about 50 psi. A lot of my riding has me going across rocks or roots mid corner, and this is where I hear the odd burp. When there is extra loading on the front wheel with some side slip. Otherwise. Cannot fault them." 
Timo also sent this hilarious photo. We take that as a good sign.

Shop Mountain Set - on SB6C



Aaron says - 'Stiff. Ridiculously wide front. Awesome.' *this comment has been edited to remove numerous expletives and other bad language.

These rims are a little bit special, and there are so many options - rather than list them all on our website, we think if you're interested you should give us a ring or come into the shop for a chat. Generally, the pricing is between $300 and $400 per rim.