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Are Wolber T410 Alpine Rims worth keeping?

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Are Wolber T410 Alpine Rims worth keeping?

Old 07-03-11, 11:02 PM
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Are Wolber T410 Alpine Rims worth keeping?

I have a pair of "Chrome Magnesium" Wolber T410 Alpine Rims on 105 hubs. 32 hole and straight gauge spokes. They came on an 88 Ironman Expert. They appear to have real low miles. I don't know why they say "chrome magnesium" as they appear to be anodized.

I had just about decided to part with the ironman, but I am thinking of hanging on to the wheelset.

The rims are 126mm, but use some sort of cassette. I guess they are probably unglide.

Because they are cassette I could upgrade them a 8/9/10 speed cassette. I did this once before. It was a pretty simple conversion. Find a 8/9/10 speed cassette, remove the axle and bearings, replace the cassette, replace the axle, re-dish and true. I did not bother to find a longer axle. Sheldon says it was ok and I went with it.

The reason for this is that I have been moving everything to 8 or 9 speed, and it seems relatively hard to find nice classic looking 8/9/10 speed wheels.

But I don't know anything about wolber rims in general, or the T410 Alpine in particular. I am hoping that the wheels will do good as everyday wheel for a 215 lb rider. Are these good rims for such a purpose?

If I keep the wheels, and don't just ship the frame to Robbie, I will probably sell the Ironman with a pair of Araya Red Label Rims on 600 rims, or Mavic MA40's on Mavic 500 hubs. I realize both those are pretty good wheels in their own right, but but they are both freewheel type, and can't be easily upgraded to 8 or 9 speed.
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Old 07-04-11, 06:12 AM
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My Wolber Profil 20 rims says "Titane. Chrome Magnesium" on its label I guess thats the mix of metals used in formulating its alloy material. Whether that's mixed into a mostly aluminum base, I dunno as I'm not a metallurgist, but I suspect that could be the case with these 80's Wolber rims. Wolber was a big French tire manufactuer that in the 80's, bought out Super Champion a popular French rim maker and directly competed with Mavic in the 80's. I think Wolber's been gone for a while now. Mavic outlived them as they did other French manufacturers. Never heard anything really negative with Wolbers, except for some of their aero profile (Profil) rims requiring now very hard to find special nipples and washers to build up. Otherwise they were pretty reliable. I haven't had any problems so far with the Profil 20s I built up late last year. Their lightest rims weren't as lightly built as the lightest that their main competition, Mavic built, so they did not suffer as much with cracking at the rim spoke holes. Because of that plus they are not as common as Mavics certainly worth keeping to put on a C&V bike specially a French one.

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