Like everyone else I'm considering building a wheel come spring time, and I realized that I really don't know what to look for in a rim.. So, I imagine someone here can tell me what makes the better rims better or whatever..?? (This isn't exactly fixed gear specific but this is the only forum I read!)

-Jason

is it for fixed gear/streettrack application?
if yes, then it belongs here!

so I guess you should further clarify wheel use: velodrome? street use?

it's all relative...(unless it's fashion)

stars!

Double walled aluminium, not single walled. If you're running brakes, a machined brake surface. a deep profile V rim will be stiffer and more resilient to bumps and hops (deformations). eyeleted spoke holes will add alot of strength and keep the spokes from ripping out later down the road.

Deep V's baby, deep V's. My new spring wheelset will sport nothing but.

The ability to stay 'round' is an attribute. Sometimes price helps in this determination, sometimes it does not. Sometimes higher price means lighter weight and less ability to stay 'round'.
'Round' here, brightly coloured aero rims are considered to be only for the type who wear their spandex too tight, but I see from many posts that this rule does not apply everywhere.

So eyelets just reinforce the spoke holes or do they do more?

165: It's for my street fixie so I just want something that will take some abuse. I also just wanted to find out some general concepts, like how I didn't really know that eyelet'd spoke holes made a difference (I guess I'm clueless )

Also as far as price goes, MA3's are cheap, but a lot of people think they are pretty decent -- is there any reason why I would need a more expensive rim over those (aesthetics aside) ??

clueless here too.

Right now my impression is that mavic is awesome.
I've been riding either open pros or cxp22s and never
had a single problem. Is this a gross generalization,
like Brian DePalma makes good movies?

jeff

See:

eyelets are nto needed. my velocity rims are great and they don't have them. my MA3 rim had them and the spokes cracked the rim later 400 miles (I later found out it was common) but to get a good rim it does not have to have eylets.

My understanding is that the specific purpose of eyelets is to allow you to have much higher spoke tension, but as was stated above, not actually necessary.

Nipples tend to turn with less friction on eyelets which makes building and getting to higher tension a bit easier. I also find that old wheels with eyelets can be easier to true.
Eyelets also reinforce the hole so the rim material can be thiner without the spoke pulling through.

absntr: What deep-v rims are available to us now? I'm only aware of the Velocitys. (I like them in black..)

cxp33
velo Deep Vs (good choice in my book)

I think ryan_c said he crafted a set of homemade Deep Vs out of some old playdoh and a tattered copy of "No One Here Gets Out Alive"

Deep V's come in black. Solid and reliable. 165 sports one. CXP33, 30. Velocity is your best bet though.

I just finished shopping for rims. While I agree the Deep V's are a fine product, I rejected them because they are one of the heaviest rims on the market at 520 grams apiece. That's heavier than Mavic Open Pro's, which I consider a fairly generic rim, at 490 grams. So I went with another Velocity product, the Aerohead, at 405 grams. I also weigh around 155 lbs, don't jump curbs and I slow down for R/R tracks I'm not hard on rims. So if your riding style tends to be easy on rims then you may not need Deep V's and all that weight.

I picked up a set of Mavic MA3's a few months ago for my wheelset and they've held up just fine. They seem like good quality rims.


Deep V's do look nice, but I don't see why they are highly prized around here. Don't get me wrong. They look nice, but they just seem like normal rims. (As mentioned before, they're heavy too.)

better do a google search on those good MA3 rims. a lot of shops stopped using them as they tend to crack at the spoke holes. mine did ater 600 miles.
deep v's are very durable and hold up to about anything.

A huge part of it for me is the aesthetics admittedly. I hate how flat rims look, especially MA3's and Open pros. I also want them to be durable - Chicago's lousy with potholes and crap streets so I want that. The weight issue is fine, an extra 200 grams here and there ain't going to kill me.

Probably the most durable rim I've ever used was the mavic MA-40, a box section rim, quite similar to the MA3. They aren't aero, just simple, strong rims. No machined braking surface either. Nashbar has them for 35 bucks a piece as well.

Unlike a lot of people here, I haven't had good luck with the Velocitys. I trashed a deep v in under a year, but chalked it up to a poor wheel build. A friend of mine had a deep v crack at the seam, on a brakeless track bike. He contacted velocity, who replaced them free of charge, but with a different rim because according to them the deep v rims aren't meant for messenger/street use. This was probably at least five years ago, so maybe the quality has improved the past couple years.

All that aside, I like the aesthetics of aero rims as well. I've had great luck with the Mavic cxp 30, and the cxp33.

Do you think it'd be weird to have an Open Pro up front and a CXP33 in the back? I'm actually thinking it might look pretty neat. I think I'm getting a single Open Pro real cheap, so I'm thinking about possibly spending more on the second rim.

We were doing some cleanup at Bikes Not Bombs the other night and I stumbled across an MA-40 with a cracked sidewall. That thing has the boxiest profile I've ever seen. Square, we're talking straight up square.

Anyhow, they're supposed to be pretty rough and tumble. I know a lot of people like 'em touring.

luckycat,

When I was shopping for a new rim last spring I emaild Velocity and told them that I needed a rim for serious/hard urban riding on a fixed gear. Their top recomendation was the deep v. They must have changed it. It has been a tough wheel so far. No problems.

I can certainly see what you're saying. An extra 200 grams (even if it's rotating weight) on a bike that isn't a race bike isn't much. They do look damn sexy.

I like my MA3's, but they do look super genero.

My experience with the MA-series is as follows.

- MA40 on Suntour Superbe Pro hubs, 3x, 36h - on my conversion for 6 months, everyday commute in downtown SF and San Jose. Sold the conversion, put the wheels on my track bike for street duty, they see about 25 miles a week(+/- 60 miles), been on there for about 4 months now. No problems whatsoever with them so far, and the bike they are on has about 1mm of clearance on the front fork, no exaggeration.

- MA-3 on Suzue ProMax hubs, 2x, 32h - On the commuter now for about 6 months. This bike does at least 100 miles a week, usually more. I just had to have them trued a week ago because the front was rubbing either side of the brake and the rear felt a bit like riding an egg.

Keep in mind that I weigh 180# and ride like a maniac in the city. Even still, I'm not too happy with the MA-3s. Gonna build some Deep-Vs up to replace the MA-3s and see how those fare....