PoorInRichfield

This whole hole-less rim thingy is interesting to me. Is the benefit of this to save weight by not having to have a tubeless rim strip? I've got to wonder which weighs less... a hole-less rim or a holed-rim with tubeless tape (the holes would save weight 'cause holes are super light ). If the weight turns out to be about the same, I guess I'd opt for holes just to avoid the difficulty of working on the wheel (should that ever need to happen, which it may not.)

illdrag0n

My Current Situation...

I ordered a set of AR46 rims with CX-Ray spokes and a 28H set of DT350 on the 6th of May.

I followed up 2 weeks ago - they advised another 8-10 business days to finish the wheels. The rims were currently in being sanded back.

I followed up today (At no point have they actually sent me an update, always initiated by myself). 2 things came up

- 1. The wheels were not yet built. They are waiting on the DT 350 hubs that were not in stock, and have since had Covid Related delays. Expected time to delivery to LB is mid June, and another 3 days-ish to build.
- 2. EMS are no longer doing non-priority mail outs from China as we're now aware of. Supposedly this is under chinese government direction. I was given the option of waiting it out or splitting the additional cost of FedEx (8-10 days postage). the cost was $118 USD (an additional $59 USD out of pocket for myself)

1 was a surprise to me, i thought that the wheel would be built by now - but in retrospect i can see how they would be restricted by the same sorts of logistics issues we're seeing the world over.
2 i expected, so i wasn't really that fussed when given the option. I'd rather spend the little bit extra (when you compare to the total cost of wheelset build) then wait indefinately for China EMS to resume services.

Regardless, i was a little bit miffed. To LB's credit (Koko is great, definately doing the best she can under the circumstances) they offered free tape and valves. I don't plan to go tubeless so they threw in 2 tapes instead.

Sy Reene

High all.. you've probably seen, but just came across this tire inflation chart on LB's site. What caught my eye was the relatively huge difference in difficulty there seems to be in mounting a 25mm vs a 28mm tire on their rims. Just thought interesting; I wouldn't have thought there'd be this much impact in one tire size.

WhyFi

The benefit is to not have to mess with rim tape. Weight difference is negligible.

Rides4Beer

Interesting, I never had issues with 25mm or 28mm GP5000s when I had my AR46s. They went on very smoothly with just my hands, never used a lever.

Sy Reene

FWIW, they don't spell out exactly whether they're mounting TL or w/Tube model of tire though.

Rides4Beer

True, I'm using clinchers, everything I've read about GP5K TLs is that they're a bear to get on.

guadzilla

FWIW, I struggled to mount both Veloflex Masters and S-Works Turbo tires (neither of which is tubeless) on the LB AR36 rims. In fact, ripped the skin off left thumb while trying to mount the former and destroyed a tube trying to mount the latter.

Never had this issue with tires before (Turbo Cottons mounted like butter on CLX64s and no problems installing latex tubes on them).

Sy Reene

What width were the tires? Pretty universally it looks like 25s are good amount harder to install than 28s.

PoorInRichfield

If the inner diameter of the tire bead is considerably smaller than the outer diameter of the rim, tire width won't matter much in the difficultly of installing. There's likely manufacturer variances in both the rims and tires explaining why some find the installation 'easy' why other not-so-much.

guadzilla

25c for the Veloflex Masters and 26c for the S-Works Turbo (the latter measure approx 27.xx on the 28mm OD rims).

Wonder why the 25s are harder to mount - wider rim?

PoorInRichfield

Light Bicycle has a spiffy video showing exactly how this is done. The guy in the video makes it look easier than I thought it'd be. Now I'm really thinking maybe "hole-less" is the way to go...

noodle soup

If you aren't building the wheelset, there's no reason not to go hole-less. It's a PITA to build a wheelset that way, but replacing a spoke is no big deal. Most spokes break at the opposite end, so sometimes you can reuse the nipple.

holybinch

Sooo, my wheels have arrived.
But, despite them sending me pics of them being shipped with valve, rim tape and spare spokes, they arrived without rim tape.
So, another day to wait until i can mount them. Then pics will follow

noodle soup

they did you a favor by forgetting the tape. Their tape is worthless.

holybinch

Good to hear!
Still, after nearly 2 months, what's another day, eh.

PoorInRichfield

Good to know! (And kind of what I figured). I just placed an order for a set of WR50 wheels yesterday and went with the "hole-less" option per the suggestion here, thus avoiding the whole rim tape issue.

For those considering ordering LB wheels, here are somethings I learned...

• The relatively new DT Swiss 240 EXP hubs won't be available in the North American warehouse for several months according to the sales person (despite the LB web site saying July). As such, I had to order from their Global Warehouse which lead to crazy shipping costs...
• FedEx shipping is really expensive... almost $200 to me in Wisconsin, but is the only option right now if you want your wheels in reasonable time. There's a slow-boat-from-China option (literally) that is super cheap, but that's 3 to 5 weeks estimated delivery time in addition to however long it takes to build the wheels. For me, that wasn't an option as it'd almost be Winter again before I got the wheels!
• They do have colored spoke nipples when using the "Global Warehouse" option even though the web site only shows black or red.
• Your order will be subject to a 3% PayPal fee. So beware that in addition to the cost of the wheels, you have the high shipping fee and PayPal fees... making the wheels slightly less of a bargain at this time.

I got an email the next day asking about what I wanted the "declared value" for the wheels to be for shipping documentation. Will I be paying some kind of import fee on the wheels? I've ordered several things from international sellers and never had to pay any import fees or taxes (yet)... I'm hoping these wheels don't get even more expensive.

upthywazzoo 

I had an inconvenient situation, ordering my wheels at the end of January from the Global Warehouse, right before Covid-19 shut everything down. Every delay imaginable happened. I was finally able to pick them up last week, after FedEx released them to a local office. I'm happy that I finally got them, but damn. Over 4.5 months?

holybinch

Lo and behold...

Royal pain in the cones to seat the tyres.
Also, clearance on the front break is dubious with 25s when my zonda had no issue whatsoever.
But they do look good if I dare say so myself.

wirides

I'm looking at the AR46 with DT350s from the US warehouse. With covid and all, are they stocking parts in the US to deliver these in a timely manner?

balles3188

Wheels finally at home and mounted in my bike! They look really awesome. They are AR56 with Conti GP5000 28mm front and rear.

Can't wait for doing a long ride this weekend if the weather is nice with me...

PoorInRichfield

Nice lookin' bike! I kind of hope the weather is only half nice so you can tell us how well those wheels handle in cross-winds

smashndash

A few of us have tried these wheels and the crosswind management is really not a big deal. I personally don’t feel as comfortable riding with no hands over 20mph anymore, but besides that it’s fine.

illdrag0n

Had confirmation today that lb global had recieved a shipment of DT hubs they were waiting on and my wheels are in the process of being built

holybinch

sweet stealthy ride.