Inertianinja

I'm looking at some wheelsets, particularly the Soul S2.0 and the Zipp 101 (for comparison only.

I was told elsewhere that Soul wheels are especially narrow wheels which make for weird handling rims.

The Soul wheels are 20mm wide, and the Zipps are, i think, 24.5mm wide.

can anyone comment on this?

carpediemracing 

Wider rims, with 23c tires, are more aero.

Since most people won't be using 19 or 20c tires, to make a wheel more aero the companies started using wider rims. (19 or 20c tires would be more aero if the rim were designed for such a tire).

Wider rims also allow you to use lower pressures. HED says to use 85-90 psi I think, in their C2 (wide) rims.

It's difficult mixing wide and narrow because the brakes have to be adjusted each time you swap between rim types. I revamped my whole wheel inventory in order to go to the wide rims.

cdr

Inertianinja

so, in light of that, would the 20mm Souls be a bad choice for 23c tires?

WhyFi

?? Wide(r) rims are starting to become more popular (whether or not it's with merit is another discussion) - HED C2 rims, Velocity's A23, the new Soul S3.0 Wide are all newer 23-24mm wide rims. Almost everything else is in the 19mm range, which is why I find it strange that you would hear that the Soul wheels handle funny because of their width...

Inertianinja

since i haven't tried Soul's rims it was a bit alarming to hear. but if it's the standard size then i'm not worried.

cwk132

Might want to contact the owner of Soul. He just made a post a week or two ago about their new offerings, and they have new 3.0 wheels available in a wide variety in stock, just not up on the website yet.

Inertianinja

i guess i'll ask him how he feels about the issue.

Part of the allure of the S2.0 is that it's incredibly light (1330g) compared to other wheels in that price range (or, you could say, lighter than most more expensive wheels) AND very well reviewed.

My plan was to eventually get a set of S2.0 for a good training/climbing wheel and C5.0 for aero.

Looigi

I really like the way my HED Bastognes corner on fast descents. They carve corners very well and are very confidence inspiring. Matching the rim width to the tire is more aero but HED also claims they have lower rolling resistance. I can't vouch for that one way or the other. It's not of any real consequence but you can take wheels on and off without flipping the brake release levers since the rim is the same width as the tire. I'm sold on the wide rim concept.

carpediemracing 

On narrow rims - unless the rim is especially light (and lacking material and therefore extremely flexible), width doesn't affect handling that much. It's usually more how triangulated the rim is to the hub - narrow flanges lose every single time. See the tall aero wheel test done by VeloNews - the narrow flange Eastons couldn't be tested beyond a certain flex point because they maxed out the flex amount. I've never liked narrow flange hubs (where the flanges are close together), they make no sense. I don't know what the Soul has but the hub usually causes weird handling.

There's nothing wrong with using wider tires and narrower rims. I used to run 2.1" mtb tires on 19mm rims. It was the lightest way to get reliable wheels on a non-suspension mountain bike. A 23c tire on a 20mm rim will be fine.

I forgot about the slightly softer ride of the wider rim. I find my Bastognes have a softer ride than the 19-20mm FiR rims I trained on for a long time.