A local resale company went out of business and nobody will touch their gear with a 10 foot pole. I have the opportunity to buy a brand new set of 50mm carbon clincher wheels for $200 that I learned are basically the same stuff you can buy online these days for around $300. When they were originally sold, they were $500 and the retail cost was $750. Suffice to say, I'm basically stealing them. Standard Chinese hubs, knockoff but not inherently bad rims (ENVE profile), unknown build quality. At this price, how do you say no?

At this point, I know a lot of people have had these rimsets for a LONG time, or at least many thousands of miles. For $200, if they last a season or two of 6-10 races a year, I will call it worth it. Any feedback, thoughts, warnings, etc.?

I cant answer your question, but I would take the chance on them too at that price.

I wouldn't...

Well the worst that can happen is that the cheapy brake track delaminates while you are going down hill and you crash and die. Just avoid situations where braking is necessary for survival.

I wouldn't, unless I knew who manufactured them. For example there are a lot of happy Yoeleo customers.

I'm relatively huge, and my FTP sucks compared to my sprint power . . . so my season is mostly going to be crits, flat road races, and a TT or two. Not too worried about the braking, but I am aware of this consideration. If it were to go the wrong way, I suppose it would be less than optimal.

It's hard to identify the OEM, but there was a period of at least 3 years locally where this company sold (and people bought) their equipment very regularly. I spoke with several other shop owners, and they said it was your run of the mill chinese stuff. Nothing inherently wrong with it, just *unknown* quality, which has a bad connotation, but could, in fact, not be bad at all. Again, for $200, how do I go wrong (apart from doing a 10 mile decent and possibly de-laminating the brake track at the expense of my life, which I wouldn't do, because I have other wheels available)?

The way you could 'go wrong' is they turn out to be **** and/or dangerous, but no one has a way of knowing that will be the case. Your mind seems made up so not sure what else anyone could offer here.

Why not cut to the chase? Looks like you're only lookin' for people to tell you to go for it, so...

Dude - why wouldn't you pick those bad boys up? Do it, man!


*poster not responsible for any harm that may come as a result of following this advice

Haha well I've read enough about "Crabon" potentially "AssPloding" (which everyone talks about but nobody seems to have a real account of) that I just wanted to get a temperature check on the community. 11 speed cheap chinese carbon wheels have been out for at least 3 years now, and if nobody has died because of them, and my use-case is conservative, focused purely on aero applications, and I have other, brake-worth rims available, and they are only $200, I'm just looking for someone to give me a hard "NO" because of something catastrophic they have seen or a huge red flag. Even if I nuke one on a pothole, it won't be the end of the world. Even if the hubs last for only 5k miles, it won't be the end of the world.

tldr/ are there specific checks I can do on the hub/spokes/rim to determine if they are extra-sub-chinese quality?!

Well issue I would have is, it's so cheap to buy say a WellWorks or Yoeleo wheels that have good reputation. I'd rather just buy a new rim from lightbike, lightcarbon, yishun etc.

Just to clarify, I'm looking for specific feedback from members who actually own and ride this style of wheel.

Yoeleo's are going for about $350, shipped from China. These will likely be about $200, from a local buyer, a person in an unfortunate situation at my cycling gym, and I have already seen the wheels in person. They look like well build rims, spoke tension is relatively uniform. Hubs are not the smoothest ever but seem to have a lot of pawls, perhaps more than my current cheap Vueltas. Enve rim tape, apparent Enve parabolic shape. They actually look nice.

/tldr I have the opportunity to actually look at them in person, perhaps even ride them, so what should I be looking for as a red flag?

Is there really a huge difference between crap and ultra-crap? Just buy them already and close this dumb thread. The fact that you're buying them in a shady deal for $200 IS the red flag...

Well since you don't know who made your wheels, that's going to be hard to do. I gave you a list of companies I have read numerous happy feedback on. Wheels that have been used in competitions, races, long term, off-road and road etc. I would probably try to find out who manufactured them first. Otherwise, spend the extra 200-300$ and get them new from a reputable company. These include feedback regarding replacements. For example, one user said, all he had to do was send a picture of the clincher part being wrinkled, and he was able to get them replaced without further hassle. I would love to see that happen with ENVE, and don't say every ENVE wheel is without defects!

You have to keep in mind, there are many dealers on Alibaba/AliExpress/Ebay and DH Gate selling these wheels and frames, claiming they are certain brands. Not sure how you would know, but luckily you can contact these companies direct and deal with them direct.

I bought two frames so far direct from Flyxii and WellWorks, both sending my paypal invoice. I did not have to deal with a middle man, or dealer etc. Chance of the wheel not being what it is? Not sure, but this seems the most secure way to do it.

what are you saying here?

Just use 'em, regularly inspect them, and don't take them down any crazy multi-hairpin descents. No brainer.

You cannot tell anything about a CF wheel just by looking about it other than if it is round/true and how even the spoke tension is. The problem with carbon fiber products is anyone can claim they are made out of anything...and it is impossible to prove them right short of destructively tearing a component apart.

The Amazing thing about CF is that skin deep it is possible to imitate/copy/fake a legit product and the fake can be good enough to fool retail sales reps. Except you destructively test that part, and it rapdily becomes evident that it isn't at all engineered the same as the actual article.


As always buyer beware.

I'll admit on my bike I have a 3T Aeronova look-a-like. I only used it after a full winter of trainer riding with out of the saddle sprints.

The same thing can be said about any frame material

OTOH CF is where the big market is for it now and for the visible future. People aren't going eBay shopping for cheap steel and aluminum frames or rims....and if they are--market forces typically mean those parts are overbuilt rather than underbuilt (because making metal parts lighter costs more money).

It is easy to demonstrate with a magnet whether a bike frame is steel or aluminum. You cannot prove that a carbon part is actually Toray T800 carbon fiber, you have to trust the seller...which, well, I'll be honest regarding my look-a-like Aeronova handlebar I didn't-which is why it was stationary-trainer-use only for a full off-season until I was confident it wouldn't net me a huge dental bill.

Its cheap, do it.
I've had a set for a few years with no noticeable issues.

You either believe or you doubt. You either trust or you fear. It has very little to do with the actual nature of the materials and products in question. It has all to do with all your doubts and fears. I trust certain Chinese carbon fiber products and they reward me with excellent service.

Interesting take on it, and I tend to trust, not fear, in my daily life. Long story short what's ending up happening is that the original owner has hired me to do some work on her roadie, which will include installing these wheels for her, which is what she bought them for in the first place. She trusts them, and she also weighs 90lbs less than me, so there is a much larger margin for error lol. I'll post back when I get to test ride them.

I have a set of generic Chinese 50mm wheels that I've ridden for years. They were sold under the brand name Karbona but were bog-standard Gigantex rims, Joytech hubs, and Sapim spokes. Broke a spoke once and that was a pain in the butt because of the internal nipples and the fact that they are tubulars, which meant having to tear off a perfectly good tire.

But that's the thing for me: a cheap carbon tubular rim doesn't have the same potential for failure that a cheap carbon rim has. If the brake surface on a tubular delaminates, you're not going to have the same chance for a blowout and possible catastrophic failure that you could with a clincher.

In fairness those aren't Chinese. Those are from Taiwan and Gigantex is a large well known manufacturer with a good track record...now.

There's a lot of ways to make something. Putting all carbon rims from a country in the same box is like saying all cars are alike because they are have steel in them. There's some good stuff out there and there's some not so good stuff. tbh - buy from those who have done some due diligence. Not an ad for myself per se but there are people - a lot of them - like me who have learned the hard way that sometimes even the bigger guys really mess up and the $ you pay is to cover you for that scenario.