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Suggestions on wheel set, what to do with these wheels

Old 04-05-14, 10:25 AM
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Suggestions on wheel set, what to do with these wheels

So I've learned that my bike is complete crap so I'm looking for a new bike. I'm looking to buy a complete bike to save money rather than build my own. I found a nice deal for a bike and the wheels are "Mavic Ellipse front rim with bladed spokes, H plus son EERO rear rim, laced to a NJS Dura Ace hub (36 holes)".

I'm planning on running a front brake. I love the mavic ellipse but don't want to ruin it with breaking. Can't decide if I should just use a brake and let it wear a ring around the rim. Or if i should sell the mavic and buy something with a machined wall. Or if I should sell both wheels and buy a set somewhere like the velocity deep v's that keep popping up in all searches I do.
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Old 04-05-14, 11:10 AM
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Or you could visit a shop in your town that specializes in fixed gear bikes.

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Old 04-05-14, 11:27 AM
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I'm a married broke college student. I'm getting a bike for $500. As much as I'd like to buy a bike from retrogression, I couldn't afford it. Maybe when I graduate and have a nice job I'll buy a new bike and support scrod. For now, I have to go the cheap route.
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Old 04-05-14, 11:29 AM
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In that case, just keep the wheels the bike comes with.
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Old 04-05-14, 11:33 AM
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I've been trying to search about machined sidewalls. Are they really no big deal? With the mavic ellipse, will it just be squeaky until the brake forms a ring, then all will be good?
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Old 04-05-14, 11:50 AM
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They'll be fine from the get go.
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Old 04-05-14, 12:06 PM
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Found a set of velocity deep v wheels on c-list that I could get for $135. Was thinking of buying them and switching them out for the mavic ellipse and h + son eero. Would end up saving me extra money and from what I hear velocity makes a good rim .
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Old 04-05-14, 12:51 PM
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"I have no money" and "I want to spend extra money I don't actually need to" don't really go hand-in-hand.
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Old 04-05-14, 01:58 PM
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I know... But after buying the velocity wheels, I could sell the mavic and h+s for more money than the velocity cost meaning I save overall.
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Old 04-05-14, 02:02 PM
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Hypothetically. Just because you're selling something doesn't guarantee somebody will buy it.
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Old 04-05-14, 02:34 PM
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True, I usually have good luck selling. But I'll have to think about it. I think either option will work out fine.
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Old 04-05-14, 05:58 PM
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Keep the wheels you've got. They're a better wheel.
Velocity DeepVs are strong but heavy. When I fitted the S3X hub to my Hillbrick, I could only afford to fit the new hub into a set of DeepV wheels I already had and that replaced the Miche Express wheelset that was on her. The result was to take a lively bike and make it feel a bit dull or dead. Not much but enough to notice and mourn. YMMV.

Using the brakes on the non-machined rim won't hurt - sure, it's better to buy machined walls if you're making the choice between two rims but in this case, you're not making that choice, you already have the non-machined rims. You won't ruin them and to be honest, you won't notice the wear line once it settles down to an even width.
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Old 04-05-14, 06:50 PM
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The Ellipse sidewalls are machined thus work fine with brakes, but they're also painted. Wearing a ring around them presents no issue at all. Keep 'em.
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Old 04-05-14, 07:50 PM
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Thanks for all the replies. Good to know everything is fine being left alone, in fact better. Now I don't have to worry about spending more like scrod mentioned. And no extra work.
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Old 04-07-14, 08:02 AM
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Originally Posted by murrellington
Found a set of velocity deep v wheels on c-list that I could get for $135. Was thinking of buying them and switching them out for the mavic ellipse and h + son eero. Would end up saving me extra money and from what I hear velocity makes a good rim .
Our rims are great, but the wheel is only good if were built well by a competent builder to begin with.
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Old 04-07-14, 11:17 AM
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As a shop owner and competent wheelbuilder myself I can honestly say that H+Son's quality has far surpassed that of Velocity. The rims may not be entirely terrible but they're certainly not what they used to be.
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Old 04-08-14, 05:02 AM
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Originally Posted by seely
Our rims are great, but the wheel is only good if were built well by a competent builder to begin with.
Seely, I made a comment about your rims in another thread. You asked for specifics and I gave them. You chose not to reply. BTW, the examples I gave were both from American wheel builders and Australian wheelbuilders, in both cases, people who'd been in the game long enough to compare the Australian rims with the American rims.
In this thread, once again, you're making claims about your rims, but aren't willing to back it up.
Give it up sunshine. You might be a Velocity USA employee but the stuff you are producing is not as good as the Aussie factory produced and Velocity rims have gone from a respected rim to a common or garden type rim. If you want me to change my mind, you can do more whine 'we do good stuff' and competent wheel builders can stop avoiding your wares. Quite frankly, I'm not interested in an employee trying to justify his pay cheque and that is all you are doing, you certainly are not doing the company any favours.
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Old 04-08-14, 05:50 AM
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Originally Posted by europa
Seely, I made a comment about your rims in another thread. You asked for specifics and I gave them. You chose not to reply. BTW, the examples I gave were both from American wheel builders and Australian wheelbuilders, in both cases, people who'd been in the game long enough to compare the Australian rims with the American rims.
In this thread, once again, you're making claims about your rims, but aren't willing to back it up.
Give it up sunshine. You might be a Velocity USA employee but the stuff you are producing is not as good as the Aussie factory produced and Velocity rims have gone from a respected rim to a common or garden type rim. If you want me to change my mind, you can do more whine 'we do good stuff' and competent wheel builders can stop avoiding your wares. Quite frankly, I'm not interested in an employee trying to justify his pay cheque and that is all you are doing, you certainly are not doing the company any favours.

If you posted anything, I didn't see it. I don't get to spend a ton of time on here, sadly, so that could easily be the case. This is my personal account, that I've had since 2004, and my opinion on Velocity rims hasn't changed since then. I've been building Velocity rims since then (back when I was a lowly serf bike mechanic), and had probably put a couple dozen people on my own Velocity wheel builds (along with a few Sun, Alex, Salsa, and Mavic), prior to working for Velocity (which has been 1 year and 7 days as of today).

My opinion of Velocity has not changed in the slightest since working here, and building 1,000+ wheels on our rims among others. With any wheel, I'd argue that the build is as/more important than the rim, regardless, which was my point in the above statement. I'm not here to sell anything, I'm proud of our product and how firmly we stand behind it. I'm here primarily on my own time (ie, not getting paid) trying to answer any questions or resolve any issues, and hopefully provide some wheel building insight where I can.

Cheers.
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Old 04-08-14, 07:32 AM
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You've obviously never built up or ridden H+Son hoops.

The next time I send back some Velocity rims due to shoddy quality, I'll be sure to address them to you personally.
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Old 04-08-14, 07:40 AM
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Originally Posted by seely
If you posted anything, I didn't see it. I don't get to spend a ton of time on here, sadly, so that could easily be the case…
Originally Posted by europa
Specific problems? One wheel builder I spoke to here got some A23s with spoke holes that weren't drilled all the way through (might have the name wrong, but not the problem). Swarf inside the rim. Rough edges. Maybe QC has been cleaned up. Not finding out with my money though.
From here.
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Old 04-08-14, 07:55 AM
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He's choosing to ignore my posts regarding the matter too.
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Old 04-08-14, 08:11 AM
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Well I'll volunteer to act as a guinea pig on this one by default…..I just built up a pair of track wheels using A23's. The finish appeared perfect with no burrs, etc., and they built up beautifully, perfectly round and true in both dimensions, but I'll get back after a few rides…….
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Old 04-08-14, 08:26 AM
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Originally Posted by europa
Keep the wheels you've got. They're a better wheel.
Velocity DeepVs are strong but heavy. When I fitted the S3X hub to my Hillbrick, I could only afford to fit the new hub into a set of DeepV wheels I already had and that replaced the Miche Express wheelset that was on her. The result was to take a lively bike and make it feel a bit dull or dead. Not much but enough to notice and mourn. YMMV.

Using the brakes on the non-machined rim won't hurt - sure, it's better to buy machined walls if you're making the choice between two rims but in this case, you're not making that choice, you already have the non-machined rims. You won't ruin them and to be honest, you won't notice the wear line once it settles down to an even width.
This, I have Velocity Deep V's myself, I bought them for toughness and for looks.. definitely not weight.
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Old 04-08-14, 08:37 AM
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Originally Posted by stilltooslow
Well I'll volunteer to act as a guinea pig on this one by default…..I just built up a pair of track wheels using A23's. The finish appeared perfect with no burrs, etc., and they built up beautifully, perfectly round and true in both dimensions, but I'll get back after a few rides…….
The problem is that you represent just one data point with no statistical significance. People like Scrod who see hundreds of rims have a far better chance of detecting a negative trend in quality.
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Old 04-08-14, 09:02 AM
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Originally Posted by Scrodzilla
He's choosing to ignore my posts regarding the matter too.
JeremyLC & Scrod, I scrolled through this thread a few times but I didn't see your responses to my post.

I did find europa's, though:

Specific problems? One wheel builder I spoke to here got some A23s with spoke holes that weren't drilled all the way through (might have the name wrong, but not the problem). Swarf inside the rim. Rough edges. Maybe QC has been cleaned up. Not finding out with my money though.
As far as spoke holes not being drilled through, I have no knowledge of that and couldn't find anyone who does so I really can't address it, other to say than I am quite certain that it hasn't happened again. We do make mistakes and we do have rim failures, but I think the same can be said of almost any manufacturer.

We had some startup issues with moving operations to the US, and assembling/training an entirely new factory crew. With production being more dialed in and a pretty solid factory team, we've been able to focus more on improving QC. To that end, we've built our own in-house anodizing line to decrease production time and increase the consistency of our ano colors. We surface plate our rims before we ship them to identify most join/extrusion issues before the rim is shipped. Swarf, depending on the rim, can be an issue and its one we are aware of and working to solve. We deal with it too.

Rough spoke holes is something I've seen mentioned before, but I can't say we've ever found it to be an issue with our builds. Still, it's something we do hear occasionally, and it somewhat goes along with the swarf issue in that it's likely related to the drilling process. Hopefully we can address both at the same time, but we don't feel it compromises the build of the wheel or the rim in any meaningful way.

We're not perfect, and our product isn't always either, but I am extremely confident in the quality of our wheels and rims, and we are constantly trying to improve both.

As always, if there's anything I can do to get you to give Velocity another shot, I'll do what I can. seely [at] velocityusa [dot] com
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