Binky

My wife picked up a nice old bike at a garage sale that came with pretty TWO wheel sets, both of them in excellent condition:

The original wheels were off the bike - Wolber GTX alloy rims on Shimano 105 hubs (that matched the Shimano 105 stuff on the rest of the bike) with a close radio 8-sprocket Hyperglide cluster.

The wheel set installed on the bike as found were Mavic Open 4 CD alloy rims mounted on Shimano 600 hubs with a similar 8-sprocket Hyperglide cluster.

At this point I'm wondering which wheel set to leave on the bike and which wheel set to part out.... or maybe part out both....

Is there a definite reason to favour one of these wheel sets over the other in terms of desirability or price ?

fietsbob

what brand of car is best?


I dont know .. I will only offer I have hard Anodized rims , and the braking improved once I scoured thru the anodizing on the brake track, to the base aluminum.

Using 1st rather abrasive brake pads, and a few wet winter down hill stops,
then once the anodized surface was gone, I switched to a kool stop salmon pad that does not wear the aluminum very much at all..

you may find more people will know the Mavic brand, so if your Goal is flipping the other wheels for maximum returns ,
few will know the Wolber brand name. ride those sell the Mavics.

HillRider

The Open4CD's were predecessors to the Open Pro rims and, while decent, were known to be somewhat fragile. I had a pair built on 105 8-speed hubs that were part of a build kit I got for a 1996 Litespeed Catalyst. They were fine until the rear rim cracked through the brake track from abrasion at 11,800 miles. The bike was indeed ridden in a variety of weather but I asses that as premature failure since their successor rims (Sun Mistral) were used for over 18,000 miles under the same conditions and were retired while still intact.

So, if you don't ride in harsh weather a lot, the Open 4CD rims should serve you well and the 600 hubs are a bit of an upgrade (socially if not mechanically) over the 105 hubs.

hueyhoolihan

i would ride them both for a while then decide. it would be best to mount the same tires on both for a fair comparison.

FBinNY 

If all thing are equal, I'd keep the Wolbers and sell the Mavics. This has nothing to do with quality, but Mavic should get a better price on the open market. Otherwise it's a toss up based on market value/price vs. condition, and whether the one that would command the lower price is good enough for your needs.

Binky

Thanks !

I will do what you suggest.

Binky

dwmckee

I rode thousands of loaded touring miles on open 4 CDs with no trouble at all. I'd put them on as my best riding wheels and sell of the others or keep as spares. The difference in price of the two sets on the used market is probably no more than ten bucks so it is not like you are really going to cash in on selling the better wheelset. There are better rims out there now (stronger and lighter) but the open 4s were a decent set in their day. You will occasionally need to true a bit, but they are easy to tune.

HillRider

The Open 4CD rims were, AFAIK, Mavics first use of "hard anodizing", which is what the "CD" meant, which is thicker than the very thin color anodizing typically used. Note: this is not he later ceramic coating. Mavic claimed it made the rims stronger, stiffer and more wear resistant. What it did do was make them more crack prone. The thick annodizing was more brittle than the underlying aluminum and, as the rims flexed under load and it wore off the brake tracks the residue cracked and acted as stress raisers. That contributed to the early failure I mentioned in my posting above.

Both the hard anodizing and the later ceramic coating (a real brake pad eater) were dropped relatively soon.

Binky

Thanks to both of you guys for chiming in on this and thanks for the advice.

dwmckee

Between the two choices the Op has has stated I'd still say go for the Mavics. I believe those old Wolbers are pretty flimsy in comparison to the Open 4s which were a big improvement in rigidity. They will not match a good modern rim of course, but still a better choice than
the Wolbers. My old Open 4s got pretty ugly when the pads finally wore through the anodizing. I am pretty sure you are right that the anodizing contributed to the stiffness of the rim, but even worn through the Mavics will still be noticeably more rigid than the Wolbers.

HillRider

Yeah, mine got pretty ugly as the hard anodizing wore off the brake tracks too. As to the anodizing contributing to the rim's rigidity, that was advertising puffery and nonsense. If the Open 4CD's were more rigid than the Wolbers, it was from their design and cross section. The anodizing made no difference.

scott967

I have an Open 4CD wheelset (32 hole) I bought from Performance many years ago. The rear failed around 7,000 (cracks running between spoke holes). Had the LBS build a new wheel on my Performance hub using an Open Pro. Front has about 10k miles on it, still going strong. The brake track has some wear through the anodizing, but I don't see that it affects braking performance at all. I will keep running this wheel till it fails.

scott s.
.

dwmckee

I suspect you are correct about the anodizing affecting rigidity. Probably just marketing fluff...

Litespeedlouie

My 1988 Allez came with Wolber GTXs and one failed after a season or two, replaced with Open 4CDs. I attributed the main difference being that the Wolbers had single spoke hole ferrules, and the Mavics had ferrules that formed a cup through both layers of the rim. On that basis, I feel the Mavics are likely the better "old" rim. The Mavic ferrules did have rust, though.

I put the Allez into daily, all weather commuting several years ago and used the Open 4CDs until a couple of years ago, when the anodizing was gone and I switched to Mavic ceramic coated rims for better wet braking. I find the ceramic coated rims to be great, and unlike the early ones, don't eat pads so badly. Sadly, Mavic no longer makes them. I suspected it may be because the coating never wears out!