Road Cycling - Rolf Wheels

I have mistakenly deleted the last topic and want to bring that back so please continue here. I simply wanted to delete the posts the last person made as he posted 3 times the same message. Once is enough

As far as the Rolf's I am not blacklisting them. I simply am stating my experience and the experience I get from many. I unlike many sources can actually tell you pros and cons. You decide. If you talk to any salesmen they will tell you great things, of course they sell them. I am not a salesmen and that is why I have taken the role of administrator here.

I am sure there are many happy riders with Rolf wheels. I have a friend here that loves them, but he is on his third pair. First pair he broke a few spokes and totally damaged the rear wheel. 2nd pair he crashed and now his 3rd pair. I am sire there are many that love the wheels.

I just want to point out the biggest issue with these. That is spoke replacements. If those are easy to find then great.

Shimano also uses same basic design but has attached spokes on the sides for greater strenght. Why not same design as Rolf?

I have both Dura Ace and Rolf Vector Pro wheels. I agree Shimano is better, but they are not Campy 10spd compatable, which is why I bought Rolf. We have to agree here that Shimano has copied and bettered the Rolf design though. The paired spoke design is far better than conventional wheels.

I posted a message to this topic stating that I just purchased a Trek 2300 with Rolf vector Comps. I noticed a creak right away on my front wheel. It was just a week old and I took it into my local dealer. I also emailed Rolf directly with my concerns and the information I was reading about on this forum. Since then I got my bike back from the shop and he elimiated the noise for now by lubing the nipples. I have riddin over a 100 miles and the noise has not returned. I also received an email form Rolf which I will include now.
George

Thanks for writing in !

We have seen a smal batch of VComp front wheels that creak. It seems as
though the noise is coming from between the end caps and the axle. We have
designed a new end cap that will eliminate the noise. This will be a running
change and will be implemented on the newer wheels. The new part will fit on
the old wheel. Please have your dealer contact me directly.
Chris Shaw
Gary Fisher/LeMond/Rolf Wheels Technical Advisor
Trek Mid West Mountain Bike Race Team Manager
chris_shaw@fisherbike.com

I've been riding the Rolf Vector Pros for about 16 months now. I'm 6'5" and 185 pounds. They are still spot on true despite pot holes, railroad tracks, you name it. A great wheelset for sure.

Relief, as I purchased a set of Vector Pros a few months back and thought perhaps it was a bad purchase.

There must be some problems though, as I noticed no one used them during the Tour de France. If they were really good, I'm sure the US Postal team would have used them, as they are made by Trek.

Shimano had their wheels in the tour.

I've put over 1000 miles on my Rolfs. Very firm and very true. About half of those miles are from commuting to work in Dowtown Cleveland through streets filled with chuck-holes. By the way, I'm 6'1" and weigh 275lbs. and have had no problems at all.

What happens on a Rolf if you do break a spoke ? This may happen, not after a mere 100 miles, but after a few years. Does the rim totally crease up, or can you limp home like a conventional wheel.

You can ride any wheel with any transmission system, you just have to fit the right sized gear cluster. Marchisio make clusters that fit on Shimano or Campy freehubs, and are spaced for 8/9/10 for either system.

I have ridden both the rolf and shimano wheels. I'm planning on purchasing a set of vector pros for my new bike. Most of my teammates have been riding the pros and they have not had any major problems with them. One did taco his in a crash but was able to get it rebuilt, and one has had a broken spoke but was able to ride on it back home. They use the pros for both training and racing so there have been many miles put on these wheels. I've researched many wheelsets but I keep coming back to the rolfs. I found the shimano wheels to be a great wheelset with the usual bulletproof, quiet and easy to work on hub internals, but the design of crossing the opposing spokes opened a flex area that can be felt by a heavier rider on a hard corner. (I weigh 195 lbs and I did feel and hear the rub on my brakes) That was the only limiting factor that kept me from getting that wheelset, I was very tempted to get them due to the rebate. (I race, so I want a stiff cornering wheelset). Yes, I see plenty of riders in the pro peloton using the shimano wheels, but not much on the rolfs, but in our amateur ranks I see plenty of vector pros. The pros are a great all purpose wheelset, strong enough to train and race, aero enough for time trialing in local races, light enough for hill climbing, and plenty stiff for crits (they wind up fast, makes for a strong sprint). For a racer paying out of his pocket, spending the 500-800 dollars for the pros beats having to buy specialized wheels for training, racing and time trialing. And maybe that's why they are popular in our ranks, they're not the best in any one category but the best all around performer. And contrary to beliefs, they're not that difficult to rebuild or true. Just have to do a few extra steps.