Silver rim roundup 2017

[doomridesout]

I'm looking for some good quality silver rims to build up and things are looking fairly scarce in 2017. Criteria are reasonably light, ideally matte silver, not polished, wide is good, tubeless is negotiable but a plus.

So far I've found:
H Plus Son Archetype in polished silver: Not ideal because polished gets dirty and scratched so easily and not tubeless. I would much prefer matte silver.
H Plus Son TB14: Don't want a 500 gram box section wheel and same polished issue.
DT Swiss RR465 is discontinued. DT would by my choice for quality but no silver.
Skeptical of Velocity quality, but the A23 or Quill both come in silver.
Kinlin: People have good experiences with them but my perception is that they're not a premium product. This bike is worthy of more than the "value proposition" rims.
Mavic Open Pro: Not wide, some people complain the quality's gone down. New version is both vaporware and black only, I think.

What else is out there?

[ColonelJLloyd]

What else is out there?

Pacenti Brevet 700c. 24/28/32. Silver. i19. Tubeless. 430g.

Not sure why you're skeptical of Velocity rims. Only good experiences here.

[gospastic]

Not sure what you have against Kinlin. I built up some XR22Ts and they are a fine rim. Much more durable than some Pacenti SL23s that I bought in silver on closeout at a price still higher than the Kinlins, that lasted not even a year.

[m4rk540]

Kinlin: People have good experiences with them but my perception is that they're not a premium product. This bike is worthy of more than the "value proposition" rims.


Kinlin's are as premium as H Plus. The only distinction is the price and a few years back some online shops had H Plus rims in the low 50s. Don't let a nice typeface fool you.

[zzy]

+1 on Kinlins. I will also say my polished archetypes aren't too scratched up with careful use. A23s are also a good product now that Velocity seems to have sorted out the quality issues since switching to the US for production. Silver is definitely out of fashion for both rims and groupsets so yeah it's getting hard to find.

[velofinds]

What about a complete wheelset? I just chanced across this the other day:

https://ritcheylogic.com/media/catalog/product/cache/7/image/1000x750/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/l/classic-zeta-wheelset.jpg
https://ritcheylogic.com/classic-zeta-wheelset

No weight figure on the Ritchey page but this (https://cyclingtips.com/2016/03/taipei-cycle-show-2016-new-tech-from-full-speed-ahead-ritchey-and-rotor/) page indicates 1440g.

[Black Dog]

I'm looking for some good quality silver rims to build up and things are looking fairly scarce in 2017. Criteria are reasonably light, ideally matte silver, not polished, wide is good, tubeless is negotiable but a plus.

So far I've found:
H Plus Son Archetype in polished silver: Not ideal because polished gets dirty and scratched so easily and not tubeless. I would much prefer matte silver.
H Plus Son TB14: Don't want a 500 gram box section wheel and same polished issue.
DT Swiss RR465 is discontinued. DT would by my choice for quality but no silver.
Skeptical of Velocity quality, but the A23 or Quill both come in silver.
Kinlin: People have good experiences with them but my perception is that they're not a premium product. This bike is worthy of more than the "value proposition" rims.
Mavic Open Pro: Not wide, some people complain the quality's gone down. New version is both vaporware and black only, I think.

What else is out there?

They had issues with offshore production, years ago, and have since not had issues when they brought production back to the States. They are fine.

[jtbadge]

I have a wheelset with silver White T11s, silver spokes & nipples laced up to grey/"hard anodized" Archetypes. If you don't need bright rims, these are a nice alternative.

https://www.pedalroom.com/p/rock-lobster-team-al-road-33845_5.jpg

https://www.pedalroom.com/p/lemond-maillot-jaune-27995_10.jpg

[RudAwkning]

They had issues with offshore production, years ago, and have since not had issues when they brought production back to the States. They are fine.

They actually had a problem with the initial run of Quills. Nipples were pulling through. The Quill went offline for maybe 9 months while they went back to the drawing board and was re-introduced at about 50 grams heavier than the first batch.

[Black Dog]

They actually had a problem with the initial run of Quills. Nipples were pulling through. The Quill went offline for maybe 9 months while they went back to the drawing board and was re-introduced at about 50 grams heavier than the first batch.

Not just quills. A23's etc had quality issues. But, problems all fixed a long time ago. Ask the folks here who build a lot more wheels than I do and they will confirm that they are good rims.

[weiwentg]

What about a complete wheelset? I just chanced across this the other day:

...
No weight figure on the Ritchey page but this (https://cyclingtips.com/2016/03/taipei-cycle-show-2016-new-tech-from-full-speed-ahead-ritchey-and-rotor/) page indicates 1440g.

I may have seen them and disregarded them because I thought they had straight pull spokes. Turns out that they are, in fact, traditional J bends.

I was under the impression that Ritchey's hubs weren't that great. I am not sure where that came from, and I know that this was an impression from a few years back. I had a wheelset based on their rims before, and they were fine until the wheelset got destroyed in a car v bike. Anyway, their rims probably come from one of the factories in Taiwan that a lot of other rims come from.

[jc031699]

I may have seen them and disregarded them because I thought they had straight pull spokes. Turns out that they are, in fact, traditional J bends.

I was under the impression that Ritchey's hubs weren't that great. I am not sure where that came from, and I know that this was an impression from a few years back. I had a wheelset based on their rims before, and they were fine until the wheelset got destroyed in a car v bike. Anyway, their rims probably come from one of the factories in Taiwan that a lot of other rims come from.

Long time ago they had a recall using American Classic rear hubs / freehubs

[RudAwkning]

Not just quills. A23's etc had quality issues. But, problems all fixed a long time ago. Ask the folks here who build a lot more wheels than I do and they will confirm that they are good rims.

Definitely not disputing any of that! But the Quills were never in production in Australia. So their move from Australia in 2011 had no bearing on the quality of these rim models. It was an early design flaw. You stated "and have since not had issues when they brought production back to the States."

I'm a pretty big Velocity fan. Currently have 4 sets of velocity rimmed wheels, have owned many more (including first runs of Aerohead OCs, A23s and Fusions), and have built dozens of others for customers. Good stuff and good about warranty replacement too.

The only rim I was never a fan of was the Synergy. Have seen too many of those fail. Even with a warranty replacement, it still takes time and money to rebuild them. Usually at our expense as we wish to do right by the customer.

[oldpotatoe]

Pacenti Brevet 700c. 24/28/32. Silver. i19. Tubeless. 430g.

Not sure why you're skeptical of Velocity rims. Only good experiences here.

Same for the last 2 or so dozen I've built. QC problems right after they moved production to Florida over, imho.

[ultraman6970]

Silver tubular you have kinlin tb25...

Ultra would love to put his hands in one of those ritchey silver hubs :D