Submitted by
hunold
a Weekend Warrior
from Glendale, AZ, USA
Date Reviewed: June 30, 2010
Strengths: Stiff, reliable (as in tandem-worthy)
Weaknesses: none (make sure you buy tubes with long valve stems)
Bottom Line:
I trust these rim going downhill with a 500+ total tandem weight at speeds above 45 mph. Paired with Specialized Armadillo tires and a 10-inch brake rotor in the back, these rims match the high end Calfee frame
Bike Setup: Calfee Tetra Tetra carbon tandem with S&S couplers (custom)
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Submitted by
senorspeedy
a Cross Country Rider
from edwardsville, il, usa
Date Reviewed: July 22, 2009
Strengths: very strong, pretty colors in powder coat or anodized, tough side walls
Weaknesses: too narrow for am mtb to heavy for much else
Bottom Line:
These are tough to bend. Good bang for your buck rim as long as you don't have to worry about pinch flats do to the narrow profile. Would recommend this for cyclocross, commuters, hip fixies, and heavy road riders.
Bike Setup: Schwinn mesa gs, marzzochi marathon sl, this rim, panaracer fire xc
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Submitted by
Amaury Garcia
a Cross Country Rider
from Poughkeepsie, NY USA
Date Reviewed: July 16, 2004
Strengths: They hold true very well despite "dead on" hits.
Weaknesses: Sidewalls get dents and fold in on some areas causing pinch flats. Side walls have become concave on the braking surface.
Bottom Line:
I really like these rims because they are strong and look amazing in yellow. I've had them for slightly over three years and had to true them very few times. Unfortunately I've noticed that the braking surfaces and the rim seam, which appears to be separating, are not conducive to safe riding. I'm not sure how many miles i've put on them, I know its at least 1000 miles, but perhaps that has something to do with it. If those kinks could be worked out I would definately buy a new set.
Bike Setup: Gt Aggressor 1.0 ball burnished, Xt 8 spd. shifter/drive train/hubs, Race Face prodigy cranks, sram powerlink chain, Lx brake levers to avid brakes, Rock Shox duke xc uturn. Irc Mythos 1.95
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Submitted by
M Snow
a Cross Country Rider
from Mesa
Date Reviewed: November 13, 2003
Strengths: Tough Tough Tough, I tacoed French junk 'Mavic' replaced with better French junk Mavic. I bought Velocity VXC's These because of Dave's Wheels in Fountain Hills Reviews. He doesn't mfc anything, only assembles. There is a reason he stays with these Velocity's. I found out. These wheels have no wiggle, warp or wabble.
Weaknesses: There not made in France.
Bottom Line:
Buy these rims, I put a three body slams into these and never bent anything but my body around the top tube of my bike.
Strengths: Offered in assymmetric rear rim model in 28,32,36 holes, front offered as symmetric, same drillings. Many colors available, anodize or powdercoat finish. Reasonable weight. Allows one to customize wheelset to user and conditions.
Weaknesses: Poor quality control. High percentage of rims defective at seam. Overall poor seam joint, poor seam alignment, builds into a wheel with a hump at the seam. Cracked eyelet during build (or came cracked and didn't notice it beforehand).
Bottom Line:
This review is for the SYNERGY model. No significant use so far, will followup later. Comments based on buildup of rims into new wheelset only.
As stated above, very customizable wheel. Assym rear builds into stronger wheel.
My gripe is the poor QC on this product. Bought 4 rims, 3 were somewhat defective. Worst seam connection/alignment of any rims i've used in years. Rim meets up crooked at seam, gaps in sidewalls at seam(not welded). Built wheels exhibit a hump in roundness at seam, either due to mismatch of rim ends or inadequate bending at rim ends prior to joining. Must tension the crap out of spokes at the seam area to take out the hump, and even then its still there.
I also found a split eyelet in one of the rims (not pulled out of rim, but split on interior side.
Two other rims I built at this time from another manufacturer (WTB) were flawless and built-up better. And these were significantly less expensive than the Velocity rims.
Sent worst rim back to Velocity, they replaced it under warranty ASAP, great CS. I spoke to two folks at Velocity about the rim seam issue, they were evasive in their responses, it appeared they were trying to hide a known quality issue. I'm surspect there's more out there in inventories.
I should note that my two Cane Creeks use velocity rims (similar to Synergy model but no eyelets), and those are flawless. I guess they get the "first quality" rims.
Similar Products Used: mavic, sun, wtb, araya, wolber
Bike Setup: NA
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Submitted by
Billy
a Downhiller
from Puyallup, WA, USA
Date Reviewed: May 21, 2002
Strengths: Great Rim! I bought one for my Ellsworth after I busted My Sun Ringle Singletrack. I rode up and down stairs seeing if I could knock it out of true. I can't. Great Rim and Cool looks, especially with maxxis high rollers.
Weaknesses: None yet!
Bottom Line:
Great rim for agressive riders. I work at the shop I bought them from, so might be kinda pricey after a buildup. Way better than any rim I have seen. Check one out, and you'll see what I mean.
Bike Setup: Ellsworth Specialist, Junior T, Singletrack up front, Velocity in back, Hayes in back, avid up front, Race face Diabolus, Easton EA 50 bars, Primo Platforms, and XT drivetrain
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Submitted by
Greg
a Cross Country Rider
from NE Ohio
Date Reviewed: April 3, 2002
Strengths: Nice looks, very strong, and reliable.
Weaknesses: A tad heavy, but a small trade-off for durability and strength. Extra long valve stems make life easier.
Bottom Line:
At 230lbs weak wheels do not last. With these rims I have no problems. On both my cycle cross & mountain bike the rims have been very reliable, with no problems. They stay true for the longest time.
I'm currently building the Velocity Synergy Disc Asym Rims. At 434 grams these are much lighter and will have to see if they hold up.
As a follow up to an earlier post, I now have three different sets of velocity rims each for a different bike. They original set I have is holding up without a problem, after years of trials riding, including 6 - 7 foot drops to flat concrete. In response to anyone complaining about the 'weak' sidewalls. You are not running enough tire pressure- it is not Velocity's fault, it is your own fault. It happened to me once- I dropped a burly rock face, flatted and the rim bent in slightly. If I was running enough tire pressure i wouldn't have flatted in the first place (not to mention if i was running any other rim it would have been completely wasted, not just a tweaked sidewall). I put an adjustable wrench to the rim, straitened it out, and they have been running perfectly ever since. If you are looking for a strong rim buy a velocity.
Bike Setup: Kona Stinky, Shiver SC, Hayes, King Hubs, Truvative Hussefelts, etc...
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Submitted by
Biker animal
a Downhiller
from bikerville
Date Reviewed: October 29, 2001
Strengths: Strong nice looks machined sidewalls cheep paid £130 for them laced onto 98 hope big uns with dt spokes
Weaknesses: sidewalls are too weak bent it inwards on the last step of a 15 stair jump (but to be fair anything except a d321 would do this) also me not having enough speed to carry through the jump and also pinch flats with 45 -55 psi in them i think this is due to there no to wide profile
Bottom Line:
nice rims for freeriders looking for nice strong rims thet can take vee brakes but want to have a break from the norm (mavic) although its has been taking the street abuse i have given it 15 + stairs and with botched landing this rim is good and if they dont last me to long for the price i paid for rims and hubs the rims were a bonus i only wanted the hubs so im going to run this rim into the ground i prefer the non pinch flat wide d321
Submitted by
scott edgcumbe
a Downhiller
from edinburgh,scotland
Date Reviewed: August 31, 2001
Strengths: very strong rims.sidewalls are a bit week but nothing that a spanner cant bend back.cool coulors available.
Weaknesses: side walls.lack of steel eyelets.
Bottom Line:
very good rim.i have used them for years now for downhilling and apart from denting the brake walls they still as true as when i built them 3 years ago. had no problems using disc brakes with them either evn with my mega powered hope enduro 4,s . all other rims ive used have died beacuse the pressure these brakes put on them.really cant go wrong with this rim.go on you know you want them 8-)
Similar Products Used: mavic d521,all dh rims really!
Bike Setup: coyotedh1, manitou ,hope, velocity, paul, l&m ,etc.
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Submitted by
Josh
a Racer
from Stillwater, MN, USA
Date Reviewed: August 31, 2001
Strengths: look awesome cheap price strong
Weaknesses: weight need special tubes
Bottom Line:
I bought these rims because other people said they were strong and I thought they were really cool looking. I started building my own wheels a couple years ago, and have had great success. These were tricky to build for some reason, I think it had to do with the short length of the spokes compared to a normal rim and how deep the spoke nipples have to go. When I was done though they were awesome! I haven't bent them yet, which I think is because I hand built the wheels because my other wheels are also still unbent. The only thing I have against these rims is that I can't use a standard tube in them, only the ones with extra long valves. Which isn't a big deal, except that not all shops carry the longer ones.
In the end, anybody who wants a cool looking and strong set of wheels should buy these rims and learn to build their own wheels. It isn't hard, you can find instructions on the web.
If you have a thing against weight, well, don't buy these.
Maybe Bob rides on land mines but my experience with these rims has been nothing but awsome. I weigh 225lbs and had these hand built using Chris King hubs. In six months of training and racing, I have never even had to have these trued. I've blown more rims than I can count but these babies just keep on going. If you want bomb proof rims that are better than Sun Rhyno lites, then this is the one.
These are solid rims. I race slalom, do lots of abusive riding, and these rims have yet to get knocked out of true! It's pretty impressive. I will say, in all honesty, that the sidewalls are not super solid. I have dinged them in a few times, but, and this is the cool part: I take an adjustable wrench, and bend the sidewall back out. Then, I don't notice any difference. Plus, these things come in some sweet looking colors. The benefit of being able to run a very light spoke is nice. Plus, that v-section lets you run a shorter spoke as well. So, go ahead, buy these rims. They're awesome. Have somebody good build them up, and you'll love them.
Similar Products Used: Mavics are S H I T, bontragers(the mustangs are tops), spin, spinergy spox, tioga, azonic.
Bike Setup: Avalanche, marzocchi, velocity's
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Submitted by
Rik
a Weekend Warrior
from Sydney, Australia
Date Reviewed: July 21, 2001
Bottom Line:
jerome wrote "Not offered in "disc-only" version" the reason is, i found this out: after many months, maybe years, the rim wears out drastically. on 2 of mine, all these little cracks formed around the spoke holes, the cracks became worse, went all the way to the braking surface. having discs would speed things up dramatically (braking force travels through spokes to rims), and yeh, would be bad news, very bad!
Strengths: • Strength • Not too expensive • Look • Choice of colors
Weaknesses: • "V" shape • Not offered in "disc-only" version
Bottom Line:
I saw these rims for the first time in a bike shop (which has since became my LBS) and was amazed, at first, by their look. The Deep-V shape was awesome to the eye, plus the rims were available in red (to match the color of my bike). So, I eagerly read the reviews here and, since they were mostly very positive, I opted for these rims (my other choice at the time being the Rhyno Lites). At first, they felt heavy (I was used to Mavics 517 that are almost 1/4 lb lighter...) but got used to the weight. Once the spokes settled in, the rims never ever showed any trueing problem whatsoever. I never had to touch them (or, in that case, to bring them to my LBS). The only problem I met was to find appropriate tubes for them. Michelin, Schwalbe and IRC, among others, make long (Presta) valve tubes... but they're harder to find in thicker DH type. Anyway, since then, I did some downhilling with these rims and putting a 2.5 tire in the front was no problem, even though they're quite narrow. The plus is that the V-Shape helps reduce the inner diameter of the wheels, making them stronger (I use a 3-cross patern with 14-gauge spokes). So, for now, I'm pretty satisfied with the Deep-Vs and would recommend them to anyone looking for great-looking, durable, versatile rims (light enough for cross-country but strong enough for light DH).
