[Rhinodriver]

Anybody have any experience with these rims? Seems like some interesting engineering in them....

Rolf Prima - Products - Rage

 

[Bike Whisperer]

I can't speak for their current product other than it is the same design as the Trek owned Rolf product in the late 90's to early 00's when I was a bicycle mechanic.

My impression of Ralf wheels then was this;
-paired spokes made truing wheels near impossible. Can't true the large areas of spokeless rim.
-spoke tension was REALLY high, if one spoke broke the wheel went way out of true.
-due to high tension and standard j-bend spokes (DT as I recall), spokes would start to break after a few years of riding on them.

Now admittedly the mountain wheels fared better than the road wheels mostly due to more spokes. But mountain wheels are generally subjected to greater stresses so most of my caution still stands. Personally for the price you could get a nice set of Hope Hubs on a WTB KOM or Pacenti TL28 rim handbuilt for less $$ and it would be just as light and probably longer lived.

 

[meltingfeather]

old gimmick rehashed...
i'd describe it more as "interesting marketing" with enough engineering to make them work(ish)

 

[aerius]

Oh dear god no. To make the paired spokes work requires a heavier rim to provide the strength for spanning the unsupported section. Which is the worst of all possible worlds since the wheel ends up being heavier, weaker, and more highly & unevenly stressed. This is what happens when you let the marketing team get together with the arts group to "design" a wheel. Everything that Bike Whisperer said is true, and the wheels also break spoke nipples and suffer from spoke pull-through on the rims.

 

[Rhinodriver]

Thanks for the replies... Sounds like I'll go a different direction!