HED black wheels?

[AngryScientist]

after a stupid string of events i just bought another used set of wheels, seller accepted an offer so they're on their way to me. i've gotten burned a few times recently on ebay wheels, hopefully these come in decent serviceable condition.


two questions:


does anyone know what the width of the linked wheels is? is it the typical HED 23mm or wider?

also - do i (should i) use fancy brake pads for these?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hed-Belgium-Black-Wheelset/163222550461?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

[CDollarsign]

You're right; I am dumb.

[AngryScientist]

Those looks like regular old Belgium C2 with a machined brake track...

are you looking at the correct ad? these looks like c2's to you?

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/vTsAAOSwRPhbgxjX/s-l1200.jpg

[AngryScientist]

You're right; I am dumb.

No worries; eBay has gotten trickier trying to get you to buy stuff and showing new ads all the time.

[kppolich]

C2 rim width I believe is 23mm. 24mm Deep

[loxx0050]

If those rims are the HED with the special black brake surface coating/material (or whatever it is) then they would be 25mm wide. I think the depth is the same as the previous poster's C2 spec's that was listed (but not sure).

[simonov]

I don't think those are the PED/Exalith/special coating rims, which I don't believe have ever been sold outside of the Ardennes Black prebuilt wheel. HED did have a black rim for a period, but I think it was an ano treatment, like H+Son uses, and not the uber durable Exalith-ish coating that a few companies are using now. The Ardennes Black prebuilts have black spokes and HED hubs, though I guess it's possible one of those wheelsets was stripped and rebuilt with silver spokes and CK hubs.

[jpritchet74]

from the Hed website:

"Ardennes Black borrows the revolutionary Turbine Braking Technology of the Jet Black series and applies it to our 25mm-wide Ardennes Plus clincher. Translation? Outstanding braking in all conditions. Additionally, the consistency of stopping distances has improved by nearly a factor of five. That's not a typo.

To that, you can add all of the buttery-smoothness of the other Ardennes Plus wheels, with 25mm-wide rims, tubeless compatibility, perfect balance, and outstanding build quality. The Ardennes Black is changing the way we view road wheels, and we think you'll agree."

I have a set of the Hed Jet 4 Black and the braking surface is really nice. Look great too.

[Mark McM]

from the Hed website:

"Ardennes Black borrows the revolutionary Turbine Braking Technology of the Jet Black series and applies it to our 25mm-wide Ardennes Plus clincher. Translation? Outstanding braking in all conditions. Additionally, the consistency of stopping distances has improved by nearly a factor of five. That's not a typo.

I really love the portion of this marketing spiel that's highlighted. I guess its meant to imply that stopping distance is decreased by a large factor, but all it really means is that it will stop in the same distance every time - even if that distance is longer. So if some other wheel stops in 20 feet +/- 5 feet, and this wheel stops in 40 feet +/- 1 foot, then the braking distance consistency of the HED wheel is improved by a factor of 5.

[jpritchet74]

Ya the funny thing about "stopping distance" is that it would be more controlled by brake modulation and you locking up the brakes!

[moobikes]

Angry,

those are Belgium C2s with a black anodized brake track, 23mm wide. Not the Ardennes Black with the machined/ hardened brake tracks.

Just use any brake pads suitable for aluminium rims. The black ano will wear off in a few rainy rides.

The Black rims with the machined brake tracks are never branded "Belgium", always "Ardennes".
And any of the Belgium and Ardennes rims will have a "+" symbol if they are 25mm wide.

[AngryScientist]

thanks guys, that's good news, as i want to standardize the width of wheels for this bike @ 23mm, so these should be great as long as they are in decent shape.

[Gummee]

thanks guys, that's good news, as i want to standardize the width of wheels for this bike @ 23mm, so these should be great as long as they are in decent shape.

That's a frustration in my garage too.

Got some old-school stuff, some intermediate stuff, and some new wider stuff.

Makes for interesting wheel swaps

M

[weiwentg]

I really love the portion of this marketing spiel that's highlighted. I guess its meant to imply that stopping distance is decreased by a large factor, but all it really means is that it will stop in the same distance every time - even if that distance is longer. So if some other wheel stops in 20 feet +/- 5 feet, and this wheel stops in 40 feet +/- 1 foot, then the braking distance consistency of the HED wheel is improved by a factor of 5.

Or, more cynically, it could be that the mean stopping distance on the predecessor wheels was 20 feet, with a standard deviation of 0.5 feet. With the new stuff, the standard deviation is now 0.1 feet. I don't think a change like that would be meaningful. I don't think they're measuring stopping distances in real life. It has to be some kind of controlled setup. The variation in the stopping distances on a high-quality aluminum rim should not have been very large to begin with in a controlled setup.