Are mag wheels safe?
 

I was given a set of 26" mag(?) wheels with 3 helicopter looking blades as spokes.
They look like the old carbon fiber 3 or 5 blade designs but it's metal, one single piece for the whole wheel and rim and QR which I suspect, makes them older

My intention was to make a mountain bike with parts laying around and these rims.

Are these wheels safe for low level mountain biking? (no jumps or drops of any real magnitude)

I've never used "mag" wheels (proper naming?) so I have no idea if these things are safe.

I probably wouldn't call cheap heavy metal wheels safe becuase the only ones I see these days are low quality junk from random sources. There is zero benefits to a wheel like that. They cannot be trued and usually the hub internals are poor at best and many of the ones I have seen more recently have been for freewheels. Back in the day when BMX companies made magnesium wheels, they were probably better and they were a 20" wheel.

You could run them if you are desperate but I probably wouldn't.

I've never seen a set of metal mag wheels that were worth riding and many bordered on unsafe. If its what I had I'd use them for getting around and general riding as so many seem to get away with, but I wouldn't trust them on actual mtb trails.

Yeah, there's so little information about them.
I search for a pattern of failures on mag wheels and don't find much.
Carbon wheels have examples everywhere.

The electric bike forums seem to use the mags a lot but that information doesn't help me much.

They are out there carbon gets a bad rap sometimes and sometimes it is legit. In the end I would stick with known quantities at least for critical components.

Really bottom end e-mopeds generally (and maybe some e-bikes) use those mag wheels but I note them as e-mopeds because a bicycle DOES NOT have a throttle. Those wheels are pretty universally garbage I guess as improvised small boat anchor that could be pretty nifty though.

Worked on a bike this week for a friend with a pair, thankfully it used disc brakes. The runout wouldn't have worked well with rim brakes, the bearings were small and the axle was soft and bent. Hasn't failed yet, and probably won't fail in a way that's really dangerous but still not what I'd call safe.

ok, so basically, use it until it bends, then throw away.

Thanks

I agree with RR; there's no compelling reason to use them except they're free. Examine visually frequently and don't use for "real" MTB.