Rims without eyelets, just as strong?
 

I've been using Mavic Open Pro 32 hole rims with great success. I'm a 210 lbs recreational rider, these have held up very well, with more than 8000 miles of use in the last two years.

I'm putting together a new wheelset for a Cyclocross bike and am considering the Velocity A23 rim. This rim is about 4mm wider than the Open Pro. I like this feature and will be using wider tires, up to 700x35, on this bike.

The only issue I have with the Velocity rim is the lack of eyelets. Velocity rims get plenty of praise and positive reviews. How important are eyelets?

Michael

rims without eye lets
 

a factor I've found,or have felt.nipplesare easier to turn. better tension.

Rims with eyelets are neither better nor worse than rims without eyelets.

Granted that all things being equal, eyelets improve the strength of rims by spreading the nipple load, but all things aren't equal. Manufacturers factor whether they're using eyelets or not into the design of the rim and rims without eyelets usually have thicker sections along the belly to compensate.

Eyelets can also help by making a better seat for the nipples, but that can also be done with nipple washers if desired.

There is one other way that eyelets help, especially for those who ride in the rain, or live near a coast. Rims are drilled after anodizing, so the wall of the nipple hole is bare unprotected metal. When ridden in the wet water gets in there and sets up a corrosion process, which is much worse if salt is present. Over time this can freeze nipples in the rim making re-alignment impossible, and later yet lead to stress cracking in the rim. A simple preventative is to apply a drop of waxy oil, like LPS-3, or Boeshield to each hole and let it wick in.

Probably the single most important benefit of eyelets is cost and time savings. Machine applied eyelets in rims is a cost effective way to save time when building wheels in production.

Thank you for the complete explanation. The wheel builder is recommending the Velocity rims, so the added build labor involved will not be an issue. I'll ask him to take precautions concerning corrosion, these rims will see snow & rain.

Michael

You can take care of corrosion protection afterward by putting a drop of corrosion preventive into each spole hole from the outside (toward the hub) and giving the wheel a quick spin to force it in.

Sun Rhyno is a heavy rim, made for tandems. extrusion puts considerable metal around the spoke holes..

This is a semi-tangential question (no pun intended!) regarding the corrosion issue.

I live in CA so I don't know about significant cold and snow with its associated salted roads. But I grew up on a tropical island so I do have a bit of experience about rain and salty air. Is the corrosion between the nipple and rim such a significant issue? I have a lot of experience in corrosion and seizing between the nipple and spoke, but never between the nipple and rim.

IMO if you ride in conditions where increased corrosion in general is an issue, than rim corrosion at the drilled hole will become one. It's something I never thought about for years until I started keeping bicycles in Cozumel Mexico. Problems that never happened before suddenly started cropping up.

One factor besides the salt air and humidity, was the change in the time vs mileage age of my equipment. Up north I generally wear things out, but the bikes in Cozumel see very little riding in comparison to the amount of time they're down there. I wouldn't be surprised to see corrosion kill the bikes before I wear out my first set of tires.

So back the the rims. As aluminum corrodes in salt air it swells (much as steel does) shrinking the holes and binding the nipples. It also gets brittle and develops stress cracks. I haven't decided whether the cracking is due to the higher stress at the now shrunken hole, or to embrittlement due to corrosion, but the effect is the same; cracks forming at the spoke holes, eventually joining up and splitting the rim.

I don't know how common this is, or how bad the air has to be - Cozumel's near 100% humidity with high salt content is about as bad as it gets - but the remedy is so simple that I now use it on all rims.

Given you're 210lbs, it might pay to spec the nipple washers... can't hurt if the little bit of extra weight doesn't bother you.

You might consider using a Velocity Synergy rim. It's 700c, eyeletted, and 23mm wide.
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/velocity.asp

An OCR on the back should make for a much stronger wheel, too

+1
Same width & weight, plus eyelets.
*And* available in O/C for the rear.
I have them on two of my bikes.
I swear by O/C rims; They make a *huge* improvement in NDS spoke tension.

I'll look into the Synergy rim. I like the O/C design for the rear wheel. The Synergy rims are about 20% heavier than the A23. Peter White has the same opinion concerning eyelets as FBinNY, that is an eyeletted rim is not stronger, just easier to build and retension.

Michael

Ah, you are right;
There is a weight difference.
I misread that due to only one digit being different.

also consider these two 23mm wide rims:

HED C2 Belgians (non-eyeletted)
Grand Bois (eyelets) http://www.compasscycle.com/Hubs.html