Carbon Wheels - Rim Brake Thoughts

[Ttx1]

The last Bora Ultra 35 tubular with Veloflex Raven (or whatever the current equivalent is) was the high point of rim brake wheels.

Light, durable, feel superlative, perform superlative - pick four.

[19wisconsin64]

I've had good success with carbon rims and rim brakes. Light Bicycle https://www.lightbicycle.com/ has worked well for me. They have built up an Onyx hub wheelset, and have sold me three other pairs of rims for riding with rim brakes. You can customize many things with them.

The wider internal width rim (21) laced to a 28 or 30 mm tire is about as much as my rim brakes will handle without rubbing. Tire clearance is an issue with the modern wider rims for your frame and fork, in addition to the brake calipers. Hope this helps!

[ridethecliche]

Do folks find that the textured brake tracks work better?
Like the arrow/arc etc

Or do they only help in the wet with water shedding?

[mortirolo]

carbon rim brake wheels = Bora Ultra AC3 tubular

[glepore]

I got a crazy deal on a pair of Lun Road 50's ($75 for a 1 yr old pair of wheels that retailed for 700, not hot-they had cosmetic cracks is the bridges beween the spoke sockets in the hub, but the hub is straight pull and the bridges are non structural-the seller worked as a machinist in a physics lab at UVA and his standards wouldn't allow him to use them-they've been perfect for over 1k miles). I'm generally a tubular guy, but these were too cheap to pass up and I wanted to try a largish volume clincher rim.
I really like these wheels, the textured track is remarkable (to answer above, slight benefit in dry but big difference in wet) and the ride with Vittoria 28's and tpu is really sweet. They're not so precious that I can't hit a stretch of non technical gravel with them.

[GregL]

I have very limited experience with carbon wheels, but so far so good. I purchased a set of BTLOS WRC-55 wheels last year. I wanted a low-cost, aerodynamic wheelset for road racing (including crits). Wheels that would have a reasonable balance of weight, aerodynamics, and price. The BTLOS wheels have met or exceeded my expectations. They were lighter than advertised (1475 grams on my scale) and have held up well to the rigors of racing. The arc brake track (in combination with SwissStop Black Prince brake pads) works as well as aluminum rims in dry conditions. If it's raining, I use aluminum rims, so no wet braking to report. I am definitely happy with the purchase and will buy from BTLOS again.

Greg

[Permanent socks]

I have some enve 3.4s and giant slr rim brake rims.

They have been flawless in the dry and if you need to brake in the wet, you need some skill and bravery to ride in a paceline with others on disk brakes.

I use enve pads, shimano carbon pads and black prince pads. The enve are the best of the bunch for wet braking.

[Ozz]

Tubular
Handmade by Oldpotatoe

Did this last year and could not be happier: Aivee/Sapim/BTLOS/Tubular

[2000m2]

Originally Posted by Ozz

Tubular
Handmade by Oldpotatoe

Did this last year and could not be happier: Aivee/Sapim/BTLOS/Tubular

How do you like the Aivee hubs? They look really nice, but haven’t seen any reviews.

I ride carbon, rim brake tubulars almost exclusively nowadays. LBS turned me on to them about 4 yrs ago after my less than stellar experience with some tubeless Enves.
Carbon Fulcrum and Campagnolo branded wheels are excellent. Corima are pretty good. I had some Cadens that were really deep profile (for me) and super fast.
I’ve found Campy red and Enve pads to be very good. Corima pads (cork) are great with Corima wheels, in the dry.
I have some essentially NOS Tune Schwarzbrenner 38T wheels that recently arrived and excited to try out. They came with what appears to be Swissstop yellow pads, so will have those to compare.
All of these wheels with 25 or 28 width Veloflex or Vittoria tubulars are tough to beat. Continentals are pretty good too, especially wrt durability.

[Greyfox]

I am also interested in the comparison between Carbon rims and aluminum rims and how well they stop.

With the lack of 650 options out there, I’m considering getting a pair of Chinese rims from either BTLOS or Light Bicycle.

Looks like some find that the graphene textured brake tracks work as good as aluminum and others not.

I’m really curious to know what @Dave Kirk thinks given that he’s ridden the HED black rims which many say are the best stopping aluminum rim available. Dave, how did you find ghe braking compared to the Hunt carbons that you are using now?

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by 2000m2

How do you like the Aivee hubs? They look really nice, but haven’t seen any reviews.

I ride carbon, rim brake tubulars almost exclusively nowadays. LBS turned me on to them about 4 yrs ago after my less than stellar experience with some tubeless Enves.
Carbon Fulcrum and Campagnolo branded wheels are excellent. Corima are pretty good. I had some Cadens that were really deep profile (for me) and super fast.
I’ve found Campy red and Enve pads to be very good. Corima pads (cork) are great with Corima wheels, in the dry.
I have some essentially NOS Tune Schwarzbrenner 38T wheels that recently arrived and excited to try out. They came with what appears to be Swissstop yellow pads, so will have those to compare.
All of these wheels with 25 or 28 width Veloflex or Vittoria tubulars are tough to beat. Continentals are pretty good too, especially wrt durability.

From my perspective the Aivee hubs do what they are supposed to do...reliable and look cool ()....oldpotatoe said he likes building with them and comparable to campy hubs....all good in my book.

I was looking at Campy and Corima prebuilts...but in the end decided to keep it more local and handbuilt.

I have some Campy Red pads on order, so interested to see how they compare to SwissStop Black Prince (which are good...just wanted to try something new based on recommendations here).

I think carbon rims with tubular tires are a nice match....happy with mine.

[Will_Elder]

Great timing on this topic I am looking at getting rim brake carbon wheels too. It is interesting to read about the brake track performance.

Sorry, a bit of a tangent but does anyone here have much experience with Enve SES 2.2 clinchers? Is rim rub an issue? Are the rear wheels flexxy?

I have an an opportunity to pick up some NOS SES 2.2s from a friend and would likely build them up with Tune hubs.

Cheers

[Jdm]

One reason why I like rims for the new Chinese manufacturers is because of their relatively newer designs. For example, they have wider internal widths and are tubeless ready.

[gravelreformist]

I have a set of the Light Bicycle wheels with the graphene brake track (without grooves). Wet braking ranges between poor and adequate. The main issue is that the brake track has to be cleared of water and get some heat into it before it becomes effective. So if you are descending, and know you will need to brake for an upcoming corner, you can brake lightly in advance, and braking is fine. It's when you're say, riding in a group and suddenly need the brakes NOW that it may take a few extra revolutions of the wheels before the brakes activate.

I presume the grooved tracks improve the initial bite on a cold wet brake track, but by how much I don't know. I've had another set of Light Bicycle wheels with the grooves in my cart now for months but haven't pulled the trigger.

[martl]

Originally Posted by evo111@comcast.net

I am sticking with rim brake technology.

Like to hear your experience and thoughts on daily use carbon wheels - new or used. Looking at 35-55mm depth for aero effect, not looking for light climbing wheels. Tubeless, Clincher with tubes or tubulars?

Campy, Shimano, Mavic, Enve, Zipp, Hunt, Cole, Chinese brands?

TIA

I ride rim-brakes on CFK (Gen 0 Lightweights with 23mm tubulars) a lot and did so often on long descents and non-ideal weather conditions. Contrary to what one can read in other sources, and in consensus with what most report in this thread, its absolutely doable; sure it is a contrast to riding a disk-brake bike possibly with fatter tires, but it is manageable, even survivable if one invests a little time in finding the right brakepads for the rim one uses.