Road Bike Racing - "Angel hair" finish? Carbon marketing BS?

So I'm looking at carbon tubulars on eBay and I keep seeing descriptions of "our beautiful angel hair finish."

For example:

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o285/beyondfabrications/DSC00595.jpg

What do you think? Is this just BS? Is there anything structurally significant about angel hair as opposed to the standard carbon weave?

What do you think? Is this just BS? Is there anything structurally significant about angel hair as opposed to the standard carbon weave?

I think they are just saying it looks cool, much like all carbon finishes (large weave, tight weave, unfinished, etc.).

to my understanding, the outer finish of the carbon weave is cosmetic only.
what i dont like more about it, is that the sticker goes into the braking surface. weird.

Yeah, I'd take that sticker off before mounting it. I've also seen this description on Blackwell wheels. Are all these hoops just manufactured in some Taiwanese factory and rebranded?

Factory Worker: "Oops, I f'd this wheel."
Marketing: "You're a genius! Angel hair finish! Everyone loves angel hair!"

I have been told it's cosmetic only anyway. Probably comes down to preference.

Factory Worker: "Oops, I f'd this wheel."
Marketing: "You're a genius! Angel hair finish! Everyone loves angel hair!"

R&D on the cheap. :twitchy:

Those Beyond wheels with angel hair look really cool in person. But you know, when a wheel is spinning like they sometimes do, you can't tell a difference.

A a disclaimer, these are just my unsubstantiated thoughts on the matter, so take it for what it's worth. As far as I can tell, most all of those rims are made in the same place. The "Angel Hair" finish is just how the raw wheel looks with the unidirectional carbon that they use. Normally, they would put a layer of the weave carbon on top, strictly as a cosmetic layer, but the cost of weave carbon has gotten really high, so most companies don't use it anymore. So, in conclusion, i'd say it's marketing BS in that it's nothing special, but the same could be said about rims with the weave on top. Both are pretty much exactly the same.

As for the sticker on the braking surface, you can sort of tell by the lighting that the rim starts tapering inward in that black braking surface area, so you really wouldn't have your pads there anyhow. I hope that made any sense.

Is it me or would this Angel Hair finsh, make it a lot harder to detect structural defects.

Is it me or would this Angel Hair finsh, make it a lot harder to detect structural defects.

do you mean cracks? If so, its just as easy..

A a disclaimer, these are just my unsubstantiated thoughts on the matter, so take it for what it's worth. As far as I can tell, most all of those rims are made in the same place. The "Angel Hair" finish is just how the raw wheel looks with the unidirectional carbon that they use. Normally, they would put a layer of the weave carbon on top, strictly as a cosmetic layer, but the cost of weave carbon has gotten really high, so most companies don't use it anymore. So, in conclusion, i'd say it's marketing BS in that it's nothing special, but the same could be said about rims with the weave on top. Both are pretty much exactly the same.

As for the sticker on the braking surface, you can sort of tell by the lighting that the rim starts tapering inward in that black braking surface area, so you really wouldn't have your pads there anyhow. I hope that made any sense.

Well, I was wondering about the weave finish too, now that you mention it. My ancient Trek 5200 has some paint issues on the chainstays. About an inch of paint at the end has chipped or peeled off and I was surprised to see that there's no weave visible on the carbon tubes. It's just flat black. It actually looks kinda cool. If there was a way to safely strip the paint and maybe put a clear coat on the carbon, I think it would look really sharp, in an SR-71 Blackbird kind of way.