dukemasterpro
Likes Dirt
I’ll start this by saying I’m a believer in carbon rims for the ride quality and the way they make your bike handle and of course look. If you have only had alloy then they have to be ridden and pushed to believe it, go back to back with the same tyres on narrow allow rims and you don’t want to go back. Unfortunately I’ve had a lot of experience with carbon rim failure in the past 7 months with Zelvy rims. Before that I’d had 2 sets of wheels – Hope Hoops on Mavic 521’s and Arch ex that had similar types of trails / riding on them and only a couple of small dings, sratch and occaisonal wobble due to a loose spoke. - Definitely good value for money.
So far since December last year this is what I’ve experienced:
2 cracked rear Zelvy rims ( 40mm wide / 35 mm internal )
*First one last about 2 months, not sure exactly what part of the trail it happened; but it got cracked somewhere from the start of Bunnings AM trail to end of Yo Mumma. Actually think it was Bunnings mid-way down.
*The second replacment 40mm rim lasted just a couple of rides and the rim cracked on the exit of the top section of Holy Trail where it meets the tarmac road in the middle. The rim held air and was rideable rest of the day, stayed true but I would not have wanted to use it much longer. Tyre choice on the 40mm was a HR2 EXO – I was happy with the weight of this tyre, no punctures, no burping, reasonable grip and generally ran at pressures in the low 20’s. Sidewall profile did appear very “tall” compared to a DH2.
That rim was replaced by a 35mm wide ( external ) Zelvy rim which so far has not had any issues, including what can only have been a savage beasting overseas. Amazing grip when paired with a Hans Dampf Super Gravity Trailstar tyre. Actually ran this tyre a lot harder 26psi for the first days overseas then when it got wet in Finale, dropped the pressures right down so maybe 20psi. All time traction and being last 2 days, didn’t care if anything happened but sure enough the wheel was fine, even again in the dry. I had complete faith in carbon again after this experience.
1 front Zelvy ( 40mm wide /35mm internal ) this lasted 7 months, so local and also overseas use then on the 2nd ride back in Australia, bang it went. Had been running tubeless, Magic Mary Trailstar Snakeskin riding at Holy Trail, Wollongong. Just a small section of roots, nothing nasty and BANG. Loudest pop for a wheel I’d heard, completely deflated the tyre and rolled it off the rim both sides. Despite being a front wheel this was easily the worst amount of damage I’ve seen on the Zelvy rims, definitely would not have held air again and when inflated with a tube just looked too risky to ride. This was more of a deep vertical crack by the valve hole.
NB –I’m 77kg with kit on so about 80-82kg fully loaded, bike is a carbon Nomad 3 with Pikes up front ie Full “enduro” setup. All the cracked rims have been on very average bits of track, spent 6 days riding about 20,000 metres of vert around Sospel and Finale Ligure, every kind of rock, root combo on bot high speed and low speed tech tracks. Makes Wollongong and Sydney trails look like a boardwalk yet both rims held up – can’t believe that?? I also know of 2 others with Zelvy’s that cracked one down Thredbo and another at Holy Trail in the gong, on a 140mm trail bike too.
The wheels have stayed true, with only a handful of spokes loose on the 35mm ED wheel, fair enough given the riding. Pretty happy with the building that Summit Cycles had helped with, all spokes were Black DT Comps with spoke tension etc as per Zelvy Similar overseas riding on a pair of factory built Arch Ex pretty much sent every rear wheel spoke loose in 4 days.
Ending this with are carbon rims value for money? Not really – all up cost of rims originally to build with spokes was $1194 excluding King Hubs, then in the region of $676 in getting them fixed ( spokes, labour, returning a wheel to Zelvy, “ Crash Replacement Rims”) . Plus the downtime in going to and from the bike shop to drop-off / collect, waiting for the build, waiting for the rims to come down from Qld – I’d say the downtime is a major inconvenience, it’s all time off the bike and then you have to go back to alloy which is a bit ghetto. Yes, flame me that it’s a 1st world problem but really for the price the ride quality is there just not the longevity – either the rims need to be made substantially better or be sold in 20 packs like inner tubes ( at a realistic price ) and then someone teach me how to build one everytime they go pop.
So far since December last year this is what I’ve experienced:
2 cracked rear Zelvy rims ( 40mm wide / 35 mm internal )
*First one last about 2 months, not sure exactly what part of the trail it happened; but it got cracked somewhere from the start of Bunnings AM trail to end of Yo Mumma. Actually think it was Bunnings mid-way down.
*The second replacment 40mm rim lasted just a couple of rides and the rim cracked on the exit of the top section of Holy Trail where it meets the tarmac road in the middle. The rim held air and was rideable rest of the day, stayed true but I would not have wanted to use it much longer. Tyre choice on the 40mm was a HR2 EXO – I was happy with the weight of this tyre, no punctures, no burping, reasonable grip and generally ran at pressures in the low 20’s. Sidewall profile did appear very “tall” compared to a DH2.
That rim was replaced by a 35mm wide ( external ) Zelvy rim which so far has not had any issues, including what can only have been a savage beasting overseas. Amazing grip when paired with a Hans Dampf Super Gravity Trailstar tyre. Actually ran this tyre a lot harder 26psi for the first days overseas then when it got wet in Finale, dropped the pressures right down so maybe 20psi. All time traction and being last 2 days, didn’t care if anything happened but sure enough the wheel was fine, even again in the dry. I had complete faith in carbon again after this experience.
1 front Zelvy ( 40mm wide /35mm internal ) this lasted 7 months, so local and also overseas use then on the 2nd ride back in Australia, bang it went. Had been running tubeless, Magic Mary Trailstar Snakeskin riding at Holy Trail, Wollongong. Just a small section of roots, nothing nasty and BANG. Loudest pop for a wheel I’d heard, completely deflated the tyre and rolled it off the rim both sides. Despite being a front wheel this was easily the worst amount of damage I’ve seen on the Zelvy rims, definitely would not have held air again and when inflated with a tube just looked too risky to ride. This was more of a deep vertical crack by the valve hole.
NB –I’m 77kg with kit on so about 80-82kg fully loaded, bike is a carbon Nomad 3 with Pikes up front ie Full “enduro” setup. All the cracked rims have been on very average bits of track, spent 6 days riding about 20,000 metres of vert around Sospel and Finale Ligure, every kind of rock, root combo on bot high speed and low speed tech tracks. Makes Wollongong and Sydney trails look like a boardwalk yet both rims held up – can’t believe that?? I also know of 2 others with Zelvy’s that cracked one down Thredbo and another at Holy Trail in the gong, on a 140mm trail bike too.
The wheels have stayed true, with only a handful of spokes loose on the 35mm ED wheel, fair enough given the riding. Pretty happy with the building that Summit Cycles had helped with, all spokes were Black DT Comps with spoke tension etc as per Zelvy Similar overseas riding on a pair of factory built Arch Ex pretty much sent every rear wheel spoke loose in 4 days.
Ending this with are carbon rims value for money? Not really – all up cost of rims originally to build with spokes was $1194 excluding King Hubs, then in the region of $676 in getting them fixed ( spokes, labour, returning a wheel to Zelvy, “ Crash Replacement Rims”) . Plus the downtime in going to and from the bike shop to drop-off / collect, waiting for the build, waiting for the rims to come down from Qld – I’d say the downtime is a major inconvenience, it’s all time off the bike and then you have to go back to alloy which is a bit ghetto. Yes, flame me that it’s a 1st world problem but really for the price the ride quality is there just not the longevity – either the rims need to be made substantially better or be sold in 20 packs like inner tubes ( at a realistic price ) and then someone teach me how to build one everytime they go pop.
