Magnesium: the future of rim material?

[The Spider]

So American classic have had there mag rim clincher wheelset out for a while now and Shimano are apparently releasing their soon (or is that scandium??)...

advantages:

muted road feel
light weight

disadvantages:

corrosion
cost (vs. alloy not carbon!)

is this where road rim design is headed?

http://www.amclassic.com/Wheels_Magnesium.html

anyone have any experience with magnesium?

[cs124]

Scandium rims from Shimano seem to offer very few technical disadvantages over regular Aluminium for their lighter weight.

Magnesium on the other hand...I can't help but remember the Kirk Precision MTB from the early 90's. Heavier and more brittle than Al...and (allegedly) an awful, jarring ride. Those frames were cast because pure Mg is not ductile enough to be extruded into tubes.

If AmClassic's rims and Pinarello's "AK61" tubes they use in their Dogma are pure Mg I'd be very surprised. More likely some sort of alloy with Mg as the marketable constituent...imho bro mp.

[Fixed]

bro a.c. is coming out with a mag tubular 250 gram rim soon,shook has been riding them for the last 6 months . he just came back from taiwan last week so i bet they will be out soon .cheers

[Sandy]

Do I remember you saying a while back that magnesium wheels aren't very durable?



Sandy

[Too Tall]

X-squeeze me? Mg rims???? Talk about not safe. No thanks.

[kestrel]

No experience with bike rims, but back in the late 60's and early 70's I had a set of American Magnesium rims on an SCCA racer (F production) I owned. The wheels were nice, but a problem to keep clean and shiny. They seemed to tarnish with the weather, and nicked very easily. (costlier than aluminum too from what I recall.)

[Fixed]

Do I remember you saying a while back that magnesium wheels aren't very durable?



Sandy

yes a.c. says race day only . and at $1000 I don't think they are for most bros .i.m.h.o. cheers

[catulle]

I think American Classics ought to improve the design of their quick-release before going much farther. I'll never forget what the front end of a Toyota Tercel looks like from underneath thanks to American Classics' quick-release. atmo

[Fixed]

bro i know them but I don't use them cheers

[Frustration]

AM Classic have replaced the QR supplier (about three years ago...). You may have had a recent problem, but I would bet it an old set of QR's.


I have had a set of their Mag wheels for about a year now with no problems what so ever as an every day wheel. But this is Arizona and rust isn't a big problem... Then again Shook and others on the east coast have been on them a while also without fuss.

[catulle]

bro i know them but I don't use them cheers

You're smart and you're experienced (J. Hendrix, 1968)

[cw05]

They need to fix the quality control on their campy cassettes for shimano wheels too...we've had several problems with them at the shop I work at.

[The Spider]

the future is carbon?

low profiles like campagnolo neutron ultra and aero like the Zipp/reynolds collection?

has anyone had experience with carbon rimmed braking surfaces, are we at the point where the brake pad compounds are advanced enough (zipp, swissstop come to mind) that they are the future of wheel/rim design?

[Frustration]

Zipp pads- no, Koolstop- hell no, SwissStop yeah.

The Swisstop work on prettymuch everyones wheels. Zipps surface is nice, but lots of others are a bit more slick. The swisstop's work very well across the range...

[The Spider]

Zipp strikes me as a company that spends a serious amount on research and developement, and they seem to be a small, nimble company that is able to implement any changes to it's product line quite quickly...they have also shown through there product developement that they are constantly improving and refining their ranges from year to year.

Whilst this is fantastic there is one setback...there products are all labeled the same, so I find it impossible to get accurate product feedback from people.

The brakepads are an example of this, last year they were produced by Koolstop I believe (as stated - not satisfactory performance), whilst this year they have sourced there own material - so comparing 05 with new 06 would be interesting! (new pads are still produced by Koolstop I believe but with a new formula)

a 303 rim is another fine example; the differences between the 05 and mid 06 model....height, width, shape, surface, laminate composition, weight have all altered...to me there isn't a single shared dimension...yet both are called 303. I understand the name or number is a "end use / terrain specific" but still it makes it hard when reading peoples critiques of products.

If Trek, Campagnolo or Pegoretti changed everything about a product except the end use...they'd give the new product a new name too!