Crank Brothers Iodine Disc Wheelset: Durable All Mountain and Freeride wheelset (rim spine left intact for added strength). Welded, anodized 6061-T6 aluminum rim with unique "Y" cross-section.
First ride the rear hub broke in 1/2 and left me stranded 10 miles from a road. I'm mailing mine back for a full refund today. They were not even worth the $500 I paid on Chinlove.com. Very disappointed in how they performed on my first ride.
Weaknesses: hub body comes out too easy, some poor design flaws. price
Bottom Line:
I got these brand new from someone off craigslist for a great price. super sexy, i have the gold and black ones. I got a brand new xt cassette installed professionally and first ride out, bam, stripped most of the gears on the hub body. Took it back to the shop and another more knowledgeable mechanic told me these wheels are picky with cassettes, showed me how the xt cassette has these little black nubs on the back which cause it to interfere with the spokes and doesnt allow it to get deep enough on the hub. The previous mechanic probably just used a spacer to bring it away from the spokes but cause poor alignment. Thanks Bro, cool. switched the xt for a sram and they replaced everything that was broken and havent had a problem with it since. I ride these wheels pretty hard at the bike park/dirt jumps, xc/am type trails and still perfectly true after 2 years and running fine. I think Im gonna switch the front from 9mm QR on my FS AM bike to 20mm and run them on my new dirt jumping frame. since i have the adapter I can just switch them over when i want. Cool wheels, i get lots of looks and compliments and they seem to ride great too. Someone else said they flat spotted theirs while running like 28psi...i havent had a problem, but then im usually running close to 50psi...less than 45 feels like im moving slower than dirt.
Been running these about 1 year. Loved them at first, but rear hub crapped out about 4 months into last season. I'm no expert in hub construction but seemed like a poor design where return springs got hung up and did not spring back out to re-engage. Will give crank bros credit for shipping me out replacement hub parts quickly that could be easily fitted into the hub. But did not like how easily the rear hub seemed to come apart....not sure if this is normal or just mine. Occasionally hub would come apart when I had the wheel out of the frame, like if I was replacing a rotor or something. Seemed to come apart way to easily. Final straw came 2 weeks ago when I dented the rim pretty badly. Used a rotor truing fork to pull if back some, but it can never be run tubeless again. Not worth the $600 I paid on clearance, never mind the $900+ MSRP.
Bike Setup: Ellsworth epiphany, RS pike, formula R1's, need new wheelset.
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Submitted by
Guesswho117
a All Mountain Rider
from San Francisco
Date Reviewed: April 6, 2012
Strengths: Looks cool
Weaknesses: Rim dents easily, Replacement spokes are impossible to find in any local shop.
Bottom Line:
GARBAGE! ABSOLUTE GARBAGE! These rims dent so easily. 6 dents pulled out thanks to the rimrench. Broke a spoke last year at Downieville and could not find a replacement at any local bike shop in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've been mountain biking for over 15 years and have never dented a rim or broken a spoke. My buddy had the same problem with the dents on his wheelset also. Apparently you need to run super high pressure in them to prevent dents. Kinda defeats the purpose of going tubeless. I would not recommend these crappy wheels to anyone unless your plan is just to cruise around to look pretty.
Similar Products Used: Chris King with Mavic rims, Hope with Mavic Rims, WTB
Bike Setup: Santa Cruz Nomad Carbon
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Submitted by
mtbhead
a All Mountain Rider
from San Jose, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: March 12, 2012
Strengths: Strong, very laterally stiff (no flex), maintenance free, I dig the bright orange bling, kick-ass design...
Weaknesses: Busted a few spoke nipples at around the 1-year-old mark.
Bottom Line:
Awesome wheelset - I've got an early set, and have had no issues with them racing DH (Sea Otter, CCCX DHs, Kirkwood 6-hr Super-Ds) and all-around trailriding including up to 4-5' hucks. I've had to replace a few of the spoke nipples when they were between 1 and 2 years old, but for the abuse that these wheels have had (including sticks in the wheels), it's no biggie. Only one at a time. I know others that have had issues with the freehub, but I think that may have been a production issue that only affected some of them - mine has had no issues.
Similar Products Used: WTB Dual Duty, Mavic Crossmax, Bontrager wheelset
Bike Setup: Giant Reign 1
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Submitted by
Bike raider
a Cross Country Rider
from Hayward, california, USA
Date Reviewed: May 12, 2011
Strengths: Perfect look, very stiff, Excellent design.
Weaknesses: None.
Bottom Line:
All around great wheels, I sold my Chris king wheels to get this awesome wheels they look better, feel better, and cost about the same but lighter and stiffer, I see many complaints but what can you do, if you like to ride hard then pay the price.
Submitted by
the plank
a Downhiller
from Auckland, New Zealand
Date Reviewed: April 20, 2011
Strengths: Good looking, super light-weight, stiff, tubeless
Weaknesses: Very weak rear hub (have destroyed two in 12 months!), lack of support, super expensive
Bottom Line:
These wheels complete 'the look' of my rig particularly on the Mojo HD. I amabig fan of Crank Brothers kit, but they have let me down with thus wheelset!
Pros: They are noticeably stiff. Light-weight all round free-ride wheels, and would probably be better off on my XC racer. The Iodines are more heavy duty than the cobalts for sure. The range of rim and spoke colors are unmatched, so if you're more into turning heads than turning cranks, they're the way forward.
Cons: big issue with rear hubs. Twice I've broken them, and it's a long wait to get new ones! I'm now waiting on my second set, and now they're outta stock!
I give 2 flamin' chillies for the wheels, and 4+ for most of their other products
Submitted by
rzalewski6
a Weekend Warrior
from USA
Date Reviewed: February 7, 2011
Strengths: Stiff, tubeless rim, best looking all mountain wheelset ever.
Weaknesses: Rear hub?
Bottom Line:
Wheels are very stiff and have held up great so far to heavy duty/rough trail riding, small jumps/drops, and rocks. Run them tubeless at around 28 psi and they are perfectly true. I don't know how anyone could flat spot these wheels on a fire road, I mean c'mon? No problems w/ freehub yet either. Makes me think there was a batch of these that were poorly built, because mine are great so far. Crank Brothers has been great to me on pedals and other products, I say don't be afraid to buy these wheels.
Bike Setup: 2010 Titus El Guapo, '11 36 Van RC2, 1x9 w/chainguide, etc
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Submitted by
Randy Boy
a Cross Country Rider
from Granada Hills, CA
Date Reviewed: November 4, 2010
Strengths: Looks
Weaknesses: Hoops and hubs
Bottom Line:
While they may look great, don't be fooled. These wheels are absolute junk. I flat spotted both hoops almmost immediately and blew the freehub up twice. Crank Borthers customer service was less than accomodating and downright rude. I am going back to the old reliable Hadley hubs and Mavic hoops. Stay away from these wheels unless you have plenty of time and money to burn.
Submitted by
p_shep
a Cross Country Rider
from LA, CA
Date Reviewed: November 1, 2010
Strengths: Look good?
Weaknesses: Rims
Bottom Line:
Bought these to replace my aging and incapacitated WTBs after a stick took out a couple of spokes. Always wanted to get a nice strong light weight wheelset and the CB iodine seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
First ride... FIRST RIDE... on a fire road... A FIRE ROAD! I put a huge flat spot in the rim. The dent was around 1.5" but it bent the rim out of round across two sets of spokes (~1/8th of the circumference), hinging at he valve hole. Now I hit a rut pretty hard, but it wasn't a square-edged rock, and I weigh all of 140lbs. Tyres were up at 28psi.
Took it to CB themselves in Laguna. Said they'd do a crash replacement on them (that is it'll cost about $130), but didn't have any in stock, so they trued it as far as it could be and sent me on my way.
4 weeks later on Cannell Plunge in the Kern River Valley, I finish the ride to find the rim had folded over. This was almost right on the valve, so was already weakened. Tyres were up around 26psi.
Phone CB again, they refuse point blank to warranty them.
I'll pay for a new rim, then (try to) sell them.
Piece of trash >:(
Similar Products Used: Last set were WTB laserdisc trails. Lasted 2 years before bearings started to go, and stick met the spokes.
Bike Setup: Bionicon Suppershuttle
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Submitted by
Moabite
a Weekend Warrior
from Moab UT
Date Reviewed: October 14, 2010
Strengths: Shiny. Looks great when you ride your bike on the road in your neighborhood.
Weaknesses: Complete junk that will dent unless you stay on the pavement.
Bottom Line:
Crank Brothers went for form over function on these shiny pieces of junk. I road them with low pressure and dented the rims. So I added air till they were rock hard. Guess what? Three more dents. Never had this problem with Mavic or any other brand.
If you want pretty wheels that look amazing but will fail if you ride anything serious, these are the wheels for you!
Submitted by
Ridnparadise
a Weekend Warrior
from Gold Coast Qld Australia
Date Reviewed: October 9, 2010
Strengths: Stiffness, rock solid sturdiness, free-rolling, looks, tubeless tire bead is faultless
Weaknesses: Really haven't found one. Not cheap, but..
Bottom Line:
I had heard of problems with these wheels but the LBS said maybe that was an early run issue. Tried and liked them and no problems at all since. I have beaten them and they love it. Have had plenty of stick in spoke moments with no drama, but recently had a huge test on a downhill trail. A chunk of timber 8x2x1 inches must have bounced up off the frame and somehow threaded between the upper fork leg and crown and wedged there pointing into the spokes. I heard this dull pong pong pong noise and crash stopped. No damage even though I had to really pull hard to get it out. Very impressed.
Similar Products Used: These are a more solid wheelset than any I have used before. Been using XT hubs for years. They have been a huge leap forward for the bike's handling over my previous Mavic XC wheels.
Bike Setup: Ibis Mojo Carbon, 2.35 High Roller super tacky tubeless F + R, 70mm stem, Race Face Next rier bars, Joplin seatpost, XTR FD, XT RD, Avid Juicy 7 7" front 6" rear.
Strengths: stiff wheels, crank brothers have the best tech support
Weaknesses: hub has play in both front and rear, freehub body bearings are spent, rotors hold on the cups which give micro millimeter play in them, the cups seals get lots of dust in them which got rocks in the rear rotor cup side and and the hub need to be replaced.
Bottom Line:
the rim and spoke are boom prof the hubs need to be redesigned cups are cool but are too testy
