Originally Posted by
HOWSER
Here's a set of Chinese carbon wheels (clincher) that I had built up just last week. A local buddy/wheel builder built these for me using the rims he sourced over seas, Industry Nine hubs, and bladed CX spokes. The total weight came in just over 1500 grams for the pair. The quality of the rim looked excellent. They are the U/toridal shape, 25mm width, and same height as the 303's. The braking surface on these are slightly textured, not sure what you'd call that. The spoke holes were molded, not drilled.
Are there potentially poor quality rims out there, most certainly. Doesn't mean that all are bad.
Judge for yourself.
Many of the possible issues with carbon rims would never be visible under a visual inspection of the exterior. Even if the actual design of the rim is sound you would not be able to tell if the lay up was done properly and is void free. Or if they substituted a lesser grade of carbon or resin.
I gamble myself on this in riding some Yishin carbon tubular rims, but I don't kid myself that the lack of an obvious visible manufacturing flaw somehow guarantees their quality or my safety.