Found these online, considering buying them. I figured some of you guys may have first-hand experience with rims like these.





Any info on these, good or bad, would be much appreciated.

Hi Exit. I do not have any personal use experience with those but I recall seeing some and more of the clincher style. they were OK rims and a bit on the lighter side. I never recall the few people I knew with them, or clincher style, having alot of trouble.

on a personal note, I had a pair of Ambrosio Elete aero clincher rims like that. after alot of riding the first season I started having alot of trouble with broken nipples. I am not certain about those but the Ambrosios had washer with them that went on the nipple.

Personally, I would probably avoid these rims, especially if they have a low spoke count. Not, because Sun/Matrix rims were bad, but because hard anodized rims are more prone to cracking at the spoke holes. Not having eyelets only increases that risk, as does decreasing spoke count.

Yeah, not having eyelets is a bad thing, IMO. They tend to lead to cracked rims and sheared nipples (ouch).

FWIW, I have a set of (used, excellent condition) Mavic Mach 2 Ceramic tubular rims, 32 hole, that are eyeletted....I could be convinced to part with them, since I need to fund a new wheel build. I might even have a pair of Conti Sprinter 250's...

those look a bit like track rims with no brake surface.

Those rims pre-date welded seams and machined braking surfaces.

I have a rim which looks just like those, though I thought it was a Wolber Profil before I saw the post. There is no brake surface. The entire side of the rim is tapered.

Matrix originally supplied washers to prevent this from happening. The official washers were rectangular, to fit in the rim channel, but people didn't like to use them and they eventually decided they were unnecessary. For low spoke count (say, < 28h) you may still want to use them.

I have some of those rims also but have never had them built up. I also have some that are almost the same that are labeled SUN (the manufacturer) and I have some with the same profile but lower that are for track use only. Sort of a nineties deal.

vjp

I had more than one 80s Matrix anodized rim crack somewhere. I don't think they had the anodization/durability issues worked out yet. I think modern rims will be more durable, assuming you aren't going for retro correctness. Rims with eyelets work out so much better for us.

Hmmm. Alright, I guess that's a no-go, then. Does anyone have any recommendations for an aero tubular rim, with a fairly deep profile? Preferably something with no braking surface (it's for a track bike).

the only rim I know of with a profile like that with eyewlets was the Mavic Mach 2. they were a bit pricy even back in '90s. did you look at Velocity? do they have to be aero? 28h? there is a guy on ebay with a Mavic 280 and 330 in 28h used but VGC. they might make a pair of nice wheels

The only pictures I can find of the Mach 2 makes them look fairly shallow. Maybe it's just a weird picture, but I'm definitely looking for something 20mm+ in depth. The number of holes isn't an issue at this point, since I don't have hubs yet. I did look at Velocity, and I'm considering the Pro Elites (30mm tubulars), but I figured I'd see if there was any cool retro rims I could find that fit the bill.

I am also in Vancouver and like I mentioned I have some NOS sets, one set specifically for track. Send me a pm if you would like to look at them.

vjp

I am no lightweight and I have raced a lot of hard road miles of an identical set of matrix iso tubulars, they are tough rims and always held up fine. Probably not the best choice of rim for daily training, but I would think you would have no problem using these on a track bike. Despite lack of eyelets, I never had a problem with them cracking or pulling a nipple.

I've got a set of them in clinchers and have not had any problems at all; I've also got a set of 32h tubulars built up with DA 7400 hubs (freewheel threaded) that are virtually NOS in case you might be interested.