CTL-370 ARAYA rims?? Seeking knowledge...

[azrider]

anyone familiar with these? they came on recent purchase and the rim seems quite a bit narrower than my other wheels. One GOOGLE search turned up an internal width of 14mm??? Does that sound right?

Front is 28H 2x lacing.

My question to experts: Are these wheels ok to commute on with 173.2lb rider and can I squeeze a 28mm tire on these?

Thanks all

[stien]

The tire will be more lightbulb shaped than a wider rim, and 28h seems fine for your weight unless you ride hard on potholes....

[crashnburn]

You should be fine with commuting sans riding hard, as mentioned earlier.
I have a set of rims with and internal width of 14.x and they ride well enough.

I remember in the 80s that I had a BMX with Araya rims and they were super tough!

[marinoni62]

I believe the "370" in the name refers to the rim weights, as in 370 grams. These are really light weight clinchers.

As for if they are suitable for commuting with 28 holes, i am sure that can be debated.

[peanutgallery]

370 was the rim weight, way too light at the time. Terrible quality from what I remember. They came on things like centurians, nishikis and diamond backs for stock wheels

Flexy and narrow from what I recall

Commute your little heart out while you can, then get something else

[ultraman6970]

There you have it right there in the sticker... "super hard"

[rustychisel]

Hard anodised in a Champagne Titanium finish (that's the CT part of the nomenclature) which is actually a sorta mushroom coloured.

I've never found Araya rims to be particularly robust, they seem a bit soft, though I can't really instance cases of failure I know of directly, but these are pretty light... OpenPro rims are >450g for instance.

These were mid level race rims and the braking surfaces are unmachined, so they weren't designed for commuting so much as bad weather training and racing. I can't speak to how hard you are on your equipment, of course, but in your case I'd be tempted to look for another pair of wheels better suited to purpose.

[cachagua]

1. (optional) Loosen all the spokes and retrue & retension them, or have someone do them who knows how, so you know the build isn't going to be the weak link in the wheels.

2. Ride 'em 'til you smash 'em, or wear them out, or whatever finally kills them.

3. Swap H+Son TB-14s on there. Probably won't even need new spokes.

[Lanternrouge]

I had a bike that came with these and the nipples ended up pulling through the rims.

[soulspinner]

173 pound weight limit..........:rolleyes:

[Mark McM]

My experience ...

The CTL-370 is a very light clincher rim (mine were around 380 grams), and made out of a relatively soft alloy. I built a 32 spoke rear wheel with one. Due to the soft alloy, when using standard strain-relief methods during building (squeezing adjacent pairs of spokes) the rim would start to buckle at relatively low tensions, so the maximum tension I could use was much lower than I ordinarily use (I typically use an average tension of 100 - 120 kgf for 32 spoke rims - the CTL-370 would only take about 80 - 90 kgf average tension).

Due to the low tension, the non-drive side spokes on the would slacken (completely loose tension) at very low lateral forces form the right, so the wheel would be noticeably unstable when standing on the pedals and rocking the bike. The spoke slackening (and the soft alloy) also made the wheel go out of true very easily. I only used the wheel for only a few hundred miles before I gave up on it.

As a point of reference, I'm about 155 lb, and not particularly hard on equipment.

[azrider]

Always impressed with the knowledge in here.

Thanks to those who shared what they know. The bike these are attached to was purchased as beater/trainer bike so I won't be too upset if (more likely when) they blow up

[malcolm]

araya ctl 370s were very common back in the late 80s to early/mid 90s
I have a late 80s centurion prestige that was their high end crit bike back in the day, came with shimano 600 and those wheels. I still have it and it still has those wheels it's in the trainer as I type this. I don't know the gauge of the spokes but they are thick.

[weehastogopee]

I have a set of 36 hole versions of these rims. Never had any issues...actually surprised to hear of all the trouble people had with them!

I would say to just use them until the wear out. +1 on the replacing them with tb14s after.