Greetings all - I'm curious whether the seemingly widespread suspicion of "compromised" carbon rims is legitimate. If a carbon rim gets a ding in it, seems like everyone believes the rim is now likely to fail catastrophically and injure the rider. Question is: is that fear based in actual crashes caused by compromised carbon rims, or is it maybe based on people having less personal knowledge of the material compared to aluminum for example. So has anyone here PERSONALLY crashed from a broken carbon rim? Thanks
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Rim brake rims right? I've heard that heat buildup on those is bad.
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Yep, but still stays in the back on my mind. Had another rider had an ENVE completely crush on a dip on single track. Wheel was in many pieces, rear wheel and they were not hurt but had a long walk out.
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What rim was it?
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Was a Reynolds
I don't see the relevance, but I'm bored and feel like posting. I smashed a rear Ibis S28 rear rim 50 miles out on the White Rim ( doing it in a day ). The wheel barely cleared the frame and had a huge crack in it. Put a tube in and started riding again. I was positive it wouldn't last the remainder of the ride ... but sure enough it did. Take from that what you will ... unclear what the lesson is ( if any). One off stories just don't mean much. Additional info: Ibis replaced free of charge. Oh, and I consider it my fault: Too low air pressure and terrible line choice. Was also running whimpy XC tires for the trip which I'm not used to.
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Whoa that's a bad break! Glad to hear it held together and you didn't get stranded in Canyonlands.
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Probably an aluminum rim would handle the strike better and without cracking?
I think a good warranty is a must when you ride carbon rims, it's great to have the rims replace for free in case of damage.
I'm thinking of going with carbon rims but only if they come with good crash replacement warranty.
I think a good warranty is a must when you ride carbon rims, it's great to have the rims replace for free in case of damage.
I'm thinking of going with carbon rims but only if they come with good crash replacement warranty.
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Nope.
Bent a couple of aluminum ones nicely but none of my (three) carbon MTB wheel builds have showed any signs of compromise.
The oldest of those builds are LB carbon hoops from 2014 that have seen a lot of rocky/rooty and urban assault (including staircases) carnage. The newest is on Nextie hoops with Berd spokes.
I'll never forget a Stan's employee telling me (at an MTB event) that I was going to die riding my Light Bicycle carbon rim wheels [emoji23]
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Bent a couple of aluminum ones nicely but none of my (three) carbon MTB wheel builds have showed any signs of compromise.
The oldest of those builds are LB carbon hoops from 2014 that have seen a lot of rocky/rooty and urban assault (including staircases) carnage. The newest is on Nextie hoops with Berd spokes.
I'll never forget a Stan's employee telling me (at an MTB event) that I was going to die riding my Light Bicycle carbon rim wheels [emoji23]
Sent from my IN2015 using Tapatalk
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I just took the leap recently and ordered a pair of carbon hoops. I broke the stock carbon hoop on my E29 within weeks of getting the bike, whereas aluminum usually last me a few months of abuse. I am hoping that the heavier duty carbon rims this time around will hold up. If not, back to aluminum.
But I have not had one fail and cause an incident, just the incident cause the failure. A friend of mine went hard over the bars when his wheel exploded when he rolled pretty fast into a reasonably large sized rock just off trail that he didn't see in the weeds. He was not injured, and I am certain the wheel would have failed in some form or another no matter what it was, but the explosion was impressive. We now call that trail "Leonards Rock" (short connector trail).
But I have not had one fail and cause an incident, just the incident cause the failure. A friend of mine went hard over the bars when his wheel exploded when he rolled pretty fast into a reasonably large sized rock just off trail that he didn't see in the weeds. He was not injured, and I am certain the wheel would have failed in some form or another no matter what it was, but the explosion was impressive. We now call that trail "Leonards Rock" (short connector trail).
I remember one of the selling points of the wheels that came on my roadie is the small amount of aluminum used to dissipate heat from the brake track. 20,000 miles with a lot of climbing, haven't failed yet.
this is the fallacy that many companies hope you fall for. based on this thread and many like it, the chance of actually having a true failure (not just being dumb on your own) is pretty rare. So paying huge amounts of money for a better crash replacement vs buying a less expensive rim option does not make sense. either way you are generally paying for the rebuild of the wheel whether crash replacement or just buying a new rim. so if you can buy a rim at 1/4th to 1/7th the cost of say an ENVE or Reynolds rim by going light bicycle or Nextie, you have to break a lot of rims to ever come out ahead. there is no secret sauce for making rims and the process has been around long enough for everyone that makes them to perfect their process.
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Impressive that you were able to ride out on that, and also that they replaced it.
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I've had a set of carbon Crank Bros Synthesis E11 wheels for over 2 years now. I've taken them to my LBS once a year to make sure they're true and the spoke tensions are correct. The 2 times I've taken my wheels in to get checked, the rims were true and like, 3 spokes had to be minimally adjusted. The rims have scratches on the surface, but no cracks. I beat the hell out of these rims and I trust them with my life.
Carbon rims have come a long way.
Carbon rims have come a long way.
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I knew someone had that happen on a Zipp 404 carbon clincher rear wheel. The guy blew his rear tire and crashed. He sent the wheels and the rest of the bike to Zipp. After a few weeks...they sent him a new wheel and a new Red groupset.
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Ok. Not all companies do that, it's positive but clearly product fault.
I have replaced most of my aluminum rims with carbon. The aluminum ones have a decent about of dents in them. The carbon are all hookless and have a wider bead seat (which means a larger / stronger surface area for me to smash things into). I have smashed my Light Bicycle set good it's been fine, my friend collapsed his 6 or so rides in. I now have Reynolds carbon rims but only a few months on them so no real comment on durability. I like that they have a shorter overall height than my LB and seem less likely to catch a rock to the side.
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Nope. I have two sets of carbon wheels (one I created back ~2014) and ~8 sets of aluminum hooped Stan's rims (some are easily more than 10 years old). None have failed.
The better question might be: has anyone crashed as the result of a poorly built wheel (carbon or otherwise).
The better question might be: has anyone crashed as the result of a poorly built wheel (carbon or otherwise).
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Daprela did crash hard on a carbon rim... Men's DH race 1 - Snowshoe
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It looks like he might have flatted and his tire came off...in a super rocky part of the trail. I think even with an aluminum rim...he's still walking down the trail.
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I can't tell from the replay. Probably yes it was a flat, the tire didn't hold on to the rim and boom.
He didn't get injured which is a good thing.
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gcn did a video doing trail riding without a tire on alloy rims. its pretty much the same, they are indestructible. it took skidding over asphalt to grind it down, and jumping hard to crack the wheel.
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