3T wheels 60 limited Tubular... Who'da thought.

[Charles M]

Review's here:

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/page/latest-news/?id=119646


I didn't know what to expect from 3T given they've never built a wheel AND were actually trying something new.

Nice job. They've been running well, no hiccups and I've been unkind to them to see if the rim/spoke interface might be an issue.

Licensing the hubs from CaneCreek was bright. As is the Campy/Shimano combination freehub.

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/14-3t-mercurio-60-wheels-4.jpg

[Bruce K]

Interesting design

Curious about the flits and debris pick up

Definitely NOT a wheel for cyclocross

BK

[pbarry]

Well written review, Charles! Nice to see an in depth explanation of a design and excellent images that illustrate your copy. 3T is really thinking outside the box with these.

[Charles M]

Strange enough, the holes stay pretty well clean... That siad, it's Phoenix and about all I deal with is dust so...

But they claim there's virtually zero water pick up for any reason because the wheel is basically sealed with this design.

I would pick a different wheel set for Cross either way though. something shallower and lighter like 202's/303's

[oldguy00]

Not that I can afford these at the MSRP, but, question for Charles.
When wheels hit a bump, are hopped on, potholes, etc., or possibly even in a sprint, don't spokes tend to become un-tensioned, even if -very- briefly (can see in slow-mo photo sometimes)??
Would this not create the possibility for the spoke to pop out of that slot in the rim? Or if the wheel took a small hit from the side, could a spoke get pushed out (squirrel attack, etc. :))?
I do think the freehub design is genius!

[ergott]

The freehub body is a day late and a dollar short. You can run either 11 cassette with no worries anyway. I don't even bother ordering Campagnolo hubs for my bike anymore. Dura Ace cassettes are cheaper than Record. The longer 11 body even lets me use Shimano 10 with some micro shims on my Campagnolo 10 bike.

Shops hate working on that hub from back in the Cane Creak days. It solves nothing as you still need a nipple. Now you need to add more weight to the rim to reinforce the spoke area and more weight to the hub to make room for that design. How is that better?

Imagine if all wheels were made this way since day one. Now imagine if people saw a "brand new" design come out. They put the nipples in the rim (nice, small hole that doesn't need all that reinforcement) and the spokes through small holes in the hub. Now that would have been in improvement. Basically this is a step back in every way you design a wheel.

[ergott]

Seriously, does this...

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/14-3t-mercurio-60-wheels-7.jpg

Look worse than this?
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/14-3t-mercurio-60-wheels-8.jpg

I can already see people complaining about the left rear spokes starting to rattle over time. Not enough tension and relying on thread locker to keep the nipples from loosening up.

[Charles M]

So far it hasn't happened... There's a half dozen of these around here with a lot of miles and it's turning out to be a workable offering.

These are not new wheels. The design is different enough that I wasn't going to write anything when they were brand new (which didnt really make me popular with 3T, as most publications wrote up something right away, a year + ago). There's collectively better than 15,000 miles on the sets around me (2 sets used by guys that weight 190-210) and they've done well...



Not saying you're wrong. But so far there's not been the loosening issue on the back side.


And if you were asking me if I would rather have hols drilled at the apex versus a solid molded structure that spreads the spoke load over several times the area without breaking fibers, so far the answer is "why not" just as easily as "why".

That cross section of the 3t wheel is only right at the spoke rather than continuous (It's only substantial immediately around the spoke). The bulk of the rim is fairly thin, including the area that would normally be the spoke bed on standard rims. That spoke bed is also continuous on virtually all other standard spoke rims, meaning that weight penalty is all around the rim.

In the case the solid structure is comparable weight as another rim (same depth) with the hardware, why not go with the solid structure?


I get where you're coming from. I was in the same boat, which is why I ran these for a year before posting to get the first hand experience. It was luck that a few folks saw them and liked em as the pool of hands on info just grew...

So far, they've done well.

[primov8]

I bought a new DEMO set last year and rode them for several months.

I had no issues with the 3T wheelset, sturdy enough for the streets and roadways of NYC and stayed trued until the day they were sold. They were just as comfortable and responsive as the ENVE 65s that I had prior and would consider them again if the prices were lowered considering a set of ENVE 6.7s is right around the same price range.


Here they were on my De Rosa.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8669860880_5d8dd0d408_c.jpg

[Charles M]

Where did those graphics come from?

[primov8]

Where did those graphics come from?

These are the colors on their DEMO wheelsets. It actually used to say DEMO WHEEL right in between the green stripe and 3T logo. Some goo-off and plenty of elbow grease and I was able to remove the decal under the matte clearcoat. Unless you were looking at the fairing inches away from your eyes, you couldn't tell otherwise.

Btw, great review! When I first got these, there was hardly anything out there about these wheels except whatever was on 3T's website and I think a review from Glory cycles.

[ergott]

It's definitely better knowing there are some out there with the miles. How about when the inevitable 200lb rider goes into his shop and buys a pair?

As you already know, Enve molds their spoke holes and there is far less material than that in there. Spoke holes (drilled or molded) have been proven with so many top carbon rim brands that it's no longer a concern.

Cool looking, but I still think they don't solve any problem and make the wheel more complex than it needs to be. I wonder how they do the internal bladder. Did you ask them about that (or can you)? It could be that the rim is two or three pieces like Lew/Reynolds used to do way back.

[Charles M]

My post above... one of the riders here is 210.

I really think he would be happier on something made for him frankly, but he's happy and those things have been rolling for more than a year...


I have seen how the rims are made but I'm stuck with a conf agreement...

[ergott]

Gotcha.

[canyoned]

Falling in love with these wheels,
the design logic finished off with those italian stripes (live in italy)
Trying my best to rationalize breaking the bank.

but am wondering whats the catch to the italian striped "new Demo Wheels" or "limited edition" as 3T calls it.

any input anyone?
Thanks