Best classic looking “modern” rims?

[msl819]

I have a set of silver Record hubs looking for some rims. I love my HED Belgium+ wheels but their looks won’t work on this build. What are my best choices for a gray or non high-polished silver rims are on the market in wide options? I know about H Plus Son, anything else? I need 32 hole.

[AngryScientist]

Pacenti brevet rims are pretty nice

Really though for the classic box look TB14’s can’t be beat.

[choke]

TB14s for the win. Though I think the high-polished silver looks perfect.

[marciero]

If "modern" means tubeless compatible I dont think the TB-14 cut it. Not sure, event though I have a set. Does "modern" also mean i20? What does "modern" mean? I'd say i20, TC.
What does "classic looking" mean? I'd say box, eyelets, and not black. Probably polished. Ano would be like classic modern; that is, what was considered modern in the old days.
To me polished on any rim looks pretty modern classic (though not classic modern). I give you Velocity Quill polished for consideration. But may be too modern looking for you to consider as "classic looking".

[bjf]

+1 on TB-14.

[bigman]

Tb 14

[msl819]

Thanks all. By tubeless I mean wide more than tubeless. I like and have used the TB 14s. More than anything I was curious if there were other options that I simply did not know about. These will go on a 90s Serotta CRL w/ silver Campy Athena 11 speed.

[AngryScientist]

Another thought, depending on your timing and budget.

i just got a Velocity Quill in to rebuild a front wheel, and it's a very nice rim, and one of the most modern Velocity offerings in the rim brake department.

i just checked on the web, and they will custom anodize them.

having a set of these with grey hard ano would be awesome!

All Custom Anodized colors are special order and will require at least 2 weeks for production. If black, polished, silver, or any other color is not listed under specs and drilling offerings, then they will be handled as a special order.

[Morgul Bismark]

Easton R90 comes in 32 hole. The EASTON stickers are super easy to peal off.

EDIT: nevermind. read your first post a little too fast, thought you were looking for something that was not silver. The TB-14s looks like a solid option.

[fignon's barber]

i just got a Velocity Quill in to rebuild a front wheel, and it's a very nice rim, and one of the most modern Velocity offerings in the rim brake department.

i just checked on the web, and they will custom anodize them.

having a set of these with grey hard ano would be awesome!


This. Gray ano would be awesome. It would look like the modern clincher that Mavic or Ambrosio SHOULD have made.

[msl819]

Another thought, depending on your timing and budget.

i just got a Velocity Quill in to rebuild a front wheel, and it's a very nice rim, and one of the most modern Velocity offerings in the rim brake department.

i just checked on the web, and they will custom anodize them.

having a set of these with grey hard ano would be awesome!

Very interesting... I have never ridden velocity. Can y’all speak to quality?

[Themountaintop]

I like the Easton R90 SL's, although they kind of flying under the radar.

[AngryScientist]

Very interesting... I have never ridden velocity. Can y’all speak to quality?

i would say Velocity has had a few quality issues in the past, but largely speaking, they are great rims, and the manufacturing issues they had are long past. the Quill represents a new, well engineered rim. i would not hesitate to build with a set of these.

[kingpin75s]

Very interesting... I have never ridden velocity. Can y’all speak to quality?

Been running Velocity rimmed handbuilt 3x wheel sets for over a decade. Never any issues with any of the rims. A23s, Dyads, Chukkers, Duallys. All good.

Speaking of. Have a set of Polished Dyads on order right now from the LBS.

[ron shackelford]

Have you heard of cycloretro? They're in Australia, but Chris Howard, the owner/operator could sell you a set of mavic open pro's. However, his rims will be the color of classic open 4 cd rims with matching decals. Only you would know what they really are. I'm guessing this suggestion may not be the fastest solution, but visually, they're very convincing rims. You could Google Cycloretro, and go to the wheel build section to see for yourself. I hope this might help, but however you solve this, how about a post when it's finished.

[Dino Suegiù]

This. Gray ano would be awesome. It would look like the modern clincher that Mavic or Ambrosio SHOULD have made.
So true.

Very interesting... I have never ridden velocity. Can y’all speak to quality?
Velocity Australia (the rims were demarcated with a small black and gold kangaroo decal and/or "Made in Australia") rims had some reported quality issues.

I have never heard or read of any significant issues with Velocity USA rims.

I have/have had wheels with both rims, in one case over 15 years old, and have never had any issues at all with Velocity rims.

[ultraman6970]

There's plenty of NOS clincher rims moving around in grey and non machined, V or box profiled. U looking for clincher rims right?

Just to start... mavic, velocity, wolver, campagnolo, ambrosio, misi, fir, etc.

Actually I have a set of campagnolo omega V aero (or something else) clinchers NOS moving around, not grey tho... they are like champagne. The bad part is that i do not use clinchers :D

I have a few grey I sun mistral rims if you want to go that route, nos stuff...

If you want to go silver mavic has some aero ones and even Rigida has some super nice 35 mm tall silver clincher rims, not light tho but the suckers are awesomely nice, nice like campagnolo nice :D I have a set of wheels with those rims.

Personally I would go grey box or V profile.

[marciero]

Velocity have/have had many models from workhorse to premium. They had issues with one or two new extrusions-eg Synergy OC. As Angry said, those things seem to have been sorted out long ago. I'm a fan and have no fewer than five different models of Velocity rims currently mounted on bikes. Their workhorse rims are not as nice as their premium rims, but they do the job. The Atlas in this post (https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=245094) has some weird manufacturing artifacts that are reportedly not uncommon with rims and nothing to worry about. After confirming this both with Velocity and independently it built up fine and has been trouble free.

On the other side of the coin are rims like Quill and Aileron, which the velocity rep called "premium" when I called to ask about the lower quality finish on the Atlas and compared to those. I would agree. I did crack an Aileron but that was a tandem rear, after thousands of miles on mixed terrain.

They say the Quill is the latest evolution of the A23-an excellent rim. I have a set of the polished Quill in 650b and they are awesome in every respect. They are i21, have remained straight, easy to mount tires, they seat well. I have not run them tubeless. I was calling the Quill and Aileron Belgium killers but they are as expensive as Belgiums.

[earlfoss]

I'm a fan of the TB14 rims. I have a set of the grey ano on my MX-Leader. They have the retro look but are made so well. My one note is that IMO they're optimized for 28mm tires. Not sure if they're advertised as such, but I spent half the season running 25mm tires on them and they felt sluggish and heavy. With 28mm they were a totally different beast. Rolling resistance was no longer an issue and they rode darn close to a tubular feel.

[zambenini]

I have TB-14s, too. Like 'em. They're not light, but they ride great.

I had briefly a set of the new Open Pro. They were really nice; I never got a chance to find an optimal tire with them, but they were promising and looked beaucoups cool (though the scalloped brake tracks were controversial in appearance to some and definitely lose "classic" cache compared with other rim options). Very light indeed, spun up quickly.

[oldpotatoe]

I have a set of silver Record hubs looking for some rims. I love my HED Belgium+ wheels but their looks won’t work on this build. What are my best choices for a gray or non high-polished silver rims are on the market in wide options? I know about H Plus Son, anything else? I need 32 hole.

Well, depends on your budget but 'ebay and
"Campagnolo clincher rims NOS" shows a lot..great rims. Not real 'wide' but a box section, modern, and 'wide'..TB-14, not a lot else.

[oldpotatoe]

Very interesting... I have never ridden velocity. Can y’all speak to quality?

Plus 1 on Velocity..I have been building with these for almost 2 decades, maybe 300-400 wheels build with Velocity, and except for a short period of time after they moved their entire production from Australia to FL(long time ago), their quality is excellent..PLUS lots of choices in terms of brake type, size, drillings, all sorts of uses..

[oldpotatoe]

Have you heard of cycloretro? They're in Australia, but Chris Howard, the owner/operator could sell you a set of mavic open pro's. However, his rims will be the color of classic open 4 cd rims with matching decals. Only you would know what they really are. I'm guessing this suggestion may not be the fastest solution, but visually, they're very convincing rims. You could Google Cycloretro, and go to the wheel build section to see for yourself. I hope this might help, but however you solve this, how about a post when it's finished.

Well, welcome Ron, to the PL forum and I don't want to slam-bam you on your first post BUT..I 'd say Open4CD, then OpenSup were very nice rims(kinda first gen OpenPro precursor) BUT the next, Reflex clincher then OpenPro, with a noisy wedge and eyelets that Mavic refused to acknowledge let alone fix, would not be my first choice of rim for any use. IMHO, of course..

[merckx]

Do the current (not the new UST scalloped profiled ones) Open Pro rims suffer from the "Mavic click?" I am aware that there exists many more modern wider rims that have excellent track records, but I am looking for a 15mm internal rim for a project. What gives on the current Open Pros?

[oldpotatoe]

Do the current (not the new UST scalloped profiled ones) Open Pro rims suffer from the "Mavic click?" I am aware that there exists many more modern wider rims that have excellent track records, but I am looking for a 15mm internal rim for a project. What gives on the current Open Pros?

Don't know about the latest version of open pro and don't want to sound like a velocity or DT fan boy but 15mm internal width is pretty narrow by today's 'standards'..Velocity Fusion?

DT411 if you are lighti-sh are 18mm...As are DT511

[tv_vt]

What do the references to 'i20' and 'i21' refer to? I'm not familiar with those terms in relation to rims.

Thanks.

[AngryScientist]

What do the references to 'i20' and 'i21' refer to? I'm not familiar with those terms in relation to rims.

Thanks.

internal rim width.

[dddd]

...What does "classic looking" mean? ...

I guess that "classic" depends on the age of the beholder, but from my point of view, a classic-looking rim has the appearance of an old silver tubular rim (or of the Module-E and Module-3 clinchers that mimicked them).

Things like polished finish, short brake tracks and moderately convex spoke-side profile are the things I look for in a classic rim.

The TB14 is a great rim structurally, is decently wide inside (16mm IIR), but has fairly tall brake tracks that somewhat betray it's modernity.

The Pacenti Brevit is wider inside (18mm IIR) and has a more-authentic overall profile, but doesn't feel quite as rigid to me as the TB14 while building them up.
This reflects different design objectives of course, so it's great to have these choices in the market!

I have built with both of these rims. I ride bikes that are quite old, so I value a credibly-vintage look. My vote has changed to the Brevit, for builds where the choice of hubs appears period-correct with the look of these new "old" rims.

I have to wonder if anyone else was hunting for obsolete silver Module-3 and -4 rims in the late 90's, or asking vendors at Interbike if they made any road rims wider than the other vendors(?). I think they all thought that I was nuts, because wider equaled heavier and seemed less aero.

Somehow, all these years later, rim preferences have trended wider, and my rim sensibilities are finally realized to a "T" with today's Brevit rims.
I'd have bought more of these than I already have, but I still have extra TB14's and a few sets of (albeit quite heavy) wheels built with Mod-4's that seem like they will last me forever.

While I'm on a good rant, one more good thing about classic rims is building wheels using (classic-length, shiny) spokes that are already paid for.

[Gummee]

Thanks all. By tubeless I mean wide more than tubeless. I like and have used the TB 14s. More than anything I was curious if there were other options that I simply did not know about. These will go on a 90s Serotta CRL w/ silver Campy Athena 11 speed.

I happen to have a trio of lightly ridden Campy Omega XLs... The grandfather of the TB-14

They were NOS till I built em up into a wheelset, then promptly didn't ride them much

M

[oldpotatoe]

I happen to have a trio of lightly ridden Campy Omega XLs... The grandfather of the TB-14

They were NOS till I built em up into a wheelset, then promptly didn't ride them much

M

:)..maybe 'cousin'(?), separated at birth and joined with a Chinese family...:)

GREAT rims, as are most early Campag rims.

[Blue Jays]

Mavic OpenPro gray anodized, grommeted, in 32-hole format, maybe?