korus1409

Just received a set of Neuvation C50 Tubulars. John (company owner) personally responded to my numerous questions prior to the order. Wheels came well packaged with brake pads, valve stem extenders and skewers. I mounted a cassette on the rear wheel, put the bike on my work stand and spun the wheel up to about 45mph. As the wheel spun I noticed that the bike "Hopped" slightly while on the stand. As the wheel speed dropped to around 30mph it caused to bike to hop up and down quite aggressively until the speed dropped below 20mph. I contacted John about the apparent issue and he sent out another set (no charge to me) with the understanding that I would return the others at some point. Second set was a little worse. I checked the trueness of the wheel on my truing stand and made a few minor adjustments but to no avail. Now I'm not sure if the "Hopping" is normal but I don't notice it to that extent with my clincher sets.... Any input with regard to the hopping would be truly appreciated! Just to clarify no tires were mounted on the wheel at the time.

Thanks

Chris

Lectron

With a perfectly balanced rim, you have no counterweight to the valvestem and extender.
You can swap out a few nipples to brass on the opposite side to even it out a bit.
A 14mm brass is 1g heavier than a 14mm alloy, so you can take in a few grams there.
Stickers can also do the job. For instance. The total weight of American Classic 420 decals is 11 grams

Now, I's guess the weight difference is somewhere between 8-12 grams. At 30mp/h
that equals the weight of a pint of water (or beer for that matters) moving around.

i always do my best to balance out all wheels. IMO, a CF rim should be equipped with a counterweight
An alu rim has it's sleeve, pins or welding , giving 6-12 grams

carpediemracing 

Try with a (dry mounted) tire, then check again.

cdr

ultraman6970

I don't know whats the surprise... It should not be unbalanced? U have valve extenders at one side of the wheel, u put more weight at that side of the wheel it makes sense that the wheel/bike does that in the trainer. Even w/o the valve extenders you will have the problem because as somebody mentioned, u have more weight at the opposite side. That's the beauty of AL rims, you put the tubulars or clinchers in and the wheel is almost perfectly balanced. ALways wondering about carbon rims and this answer my questions.

I wouldn't return them because it was something expected to happen, secondly i doubt your bike will start having jumps and jolts here and there because of unbalance, doubt you will noticed, besides u weight way more than a pint of water so nothing it will happens. U can tie some spoke heads in the spoke holes with scotch tape to balance it. ANother thing, back in the day lenticular wheels where unbalanced to take advantage of the inertia (momentum)... Lucky u, you can afford carbon wheels hehehe do not complain dude

korus1409

Thanks for the info folks. Wasn't complaining at all, just curious about the rims since this is my first set.....

Chris

faire_du_velo

Besides the aforementioned issue, how are the wheels as far as quality goes? I have been thinking about getting a set of these to use for races.

carpediemracing 

A local Masters team has Neuvation wheels - sponsorship in form of a discount, not outright stuff. So everyone has to pay for what they ride, and they all have bike shop hookups. In other words they could get other wheels too. All of them are pretty well put together as well, meaning they don't have to buy Neuvation, they could go and buy Zipps or whatever other expensive wheelset.

Neuvations use Gigantex rims (like most other "smaller name" wheel companies). They're fine. Hubs are the important part, and they seem fine too, at least according to one guy I talked to at length about the wheels. He's a Cat 2, rides the hard races, does good miles, and likes his wheels. Apparently the early Neuvations hubs weren't great (meaning in general, not on the carbon wheels), but now they're good, meaning you never have to deal with them.

I personally have never ridden them. But I trust the guy that I spoke with - he was a customer at the shop 15-20 years ago, we went to college together (he was on the collegiate team with me), etc etc. He's one of the good guys - yesterday I was talking at length with a person who races and helps with racing about "good guys" and "bad guys" so that conversation is fresh in my head.

cdr

korus1409

Quality appears really good. For $600 a set you really can't go wrong. They will also repair/replace the wheels for the cost of shipping if you crash or otherwise damage them. As one person put it "You get 80% of the performance for 25% of the cost" compared to ZIPPs that is. My "Issue" wasn't really an issue at all as it turns out. Like I stated earlier I just didn't expect them to be "Unbalanced" (first time using carbon tubulars). Went to my LBS and discussed it with them. They put a bike on the work stand which was mounted with ZIPP 404's and spun up the rear wheel = same bounce as it spun. Just normal I guess..... If your in the market for that type of wheel set give them a try. If you had compared several sets of like wheels without the badging I doubt very seriously you would be able to tell the difference in quality between them.

Chris