Product Review Newmen Advanced SL A.30 Carbon Rims

[RastaRuss]

After years of sitting on the fence, re carbon wheels, I have a pair of these babies coming.
Matching them with a set of DT Swiss 350 hubs & Sapim D Light spokes.
Rims arrive tomorrow, Spin Dr will build them late this month.
They have a system weight max of 180kg, rider, bike , gear etc.
Going on my Optic.
Review to follow, the rims cost $1,050 delivered.

NEWMEN Rim Advanced SL A.30 29

Whether road wheel, MTB or E-MTB: customise your bike today

www.newmen-components.de

 

[Rusty_68]

Any reason you didn't fancy their hubs??? Or just that you had the DT's lying around?

 

[Mr Crudley]

 

[RastaRuss]

Bit of a DT Swiss fan boi, my other bikes all run 350 hubs so spares & servicing is made easier.
Especially since I bodged up a free hub tool to remove the locking ring + an impact driver.

 

[RastaRuss]

Rims arrived yesterday.
First Impressions
Very neat, brushed carbon finish.
On the digital scales, 448g & 450g, compared to the DT Swiss 481 (same scales, 520g), happy with the gram saving.
Finish is excellent, no rattles or debris left inside, not surprising as the Newmen founder started Syntace & Liteville.
I also have a set of the aluminum, Evolution Newmen rims on my Carbonda FM936 ( marathon bike), again lighter then the DT Swiss 421 rims they replaced.
Strava tells me they've done 1720km in the last 12 months, not bad as I'm 100kg of poor line choices.

 

[Asininedrivel]

On the digital scales, 448g & 450g, compared to the DT Swiss 481 (same scales, 520g), happy with the gram saving.

Those are pretty light for heavy(ish) hitting carbon rims. Impressive.

 

[RastaRuss]

180kg system weight, so I hope so.
Spent a couple of years lurking around reading about them.
A number of Enduro teams use them, less the branding.

 

[caad9]

Recently been looking at their aluminium wheels for the XC rig, will be interested to see how these go.

Can’t find anything negative about them

 

[RastaRuss]

I've the Evolution 25mm inner width, nothing negative to report on them.
I buy the rims from r2 Handles in Germany
They require a propriety spoke washer.

 

[shiny]

Look good. Any duties to be paid and sailed through ok?

 

[RastaRuss]

Straight through to the keeper, I did however have to wait 4 weeks.
They do a propriety rim strip too, but out of stock.

 

[beeb]

180kg system weight...

I'm curious - What does this actually mean @RastaRuss? Is that for a pair of wheels, or a single wheel?

If that "system weight" means load applied to a pair of wheels, I'd say that's pretty standard for "enduro" laup carbon rims (not saying it's bad, just not that abnormal). If that's per wheel, then that's a phenomenal amount of strength for the rim weight of the rim.

 

[RastaRuss]

I interpret it to mean 180kg over the pair of wheels, like you said outrageous for as single wheel.
Interesting, DT Swiss claim 120kg for the 481, however there specifications reads per wheel ?
All I'm hoping for is the Newman's are as tough as they say re Enduro riding, that with my style of riding ( re pussy) they'll be fine.

 

[k3n!f]

I have a Newmen Evolution stem and it is a very rare component that ticks all boxes as light, cheap and has no weight or usage restrictions. Great brand, I would love to try some of their other stuff.

 

[RastaRuss]

Below is from a Pink Bike article, covering the wheels.
Question to the wheel guru's - will going to the smaller gauge make that much of a difference ?

" The wheels use Sapim D-Light spokes which go down to 1.65mm in the middle and 2.0mm at either end. Newmen did this to build-in some more compliance compared to the more common 2.0 - 1.8 - 2.0 spokes on the market. They also say that these thinner gauge spokes are strong enough for enduro use, and the wheels use the same spoke length all around: 304mm for the 29" version I have on test "

 

[beeb]

Below is from a Pink Bike article, covering the wheels.
Question to the wheel guru's - will going to the smaller gauge make that much of a difference ?

" The wheels use Sapim D-Light spokes which go down to 1.65mm in the middle and 2.0mm at either end. Newmen did this to build-in some more compliance compared to the more common 2.0 - 1.8 - 2.0 spokes on the market. They also say that these thinner gauge spokes are strong enough for enduro use, and the wheels use the same spoke length all around: 304mm for the 29" version I have on test "

I went the other way on one wheel I got Ducky to build up and (IIRC) went with straight gauge spokes instead my usual choice of 2.0-1.8-2.0 DT Comps. The wheel with the straight gauge spokes was STIFF compared to other wheels I'd had/still have with the same rim & hub combo (which are already somewhat stiff being Nextie enduro lay-up carbon rims).

 

[RastaRuss]

Just picked the wheels up, to good for a Muppet like me.
Review & thoughts to follow, putting them together today, riding on the weekend.

 

[RastaRuss]

First Impressions.
Spencer from Spin Dr said they where an easy build, so no troubles.
Existing Vittoria tyres mounted with no tools (other then me) & inflated fine.
I'm sure after a few beers I could tell you the 170g weight difference is noticeable. On the road , yes, on the tracks no.
Bearing in mind I'm coming from a pretty good alloy wheel set in the DT Swiss 481.
Definitely stiffer & with 105kg of poor line choices very noticeable. But not to stiff in a bad way, you can feel the compliance.
Maybe a combination of the rim & the DT Swiss Competition, double butted spokes ?
They have a muted feel, chatter seems to be reduced, more time is needed to decide on this.
Overall happy with the wheel set, saving weight wasn't the intention, stiffness with a degree of compliance was the goal.

 

[angryasian]

First Impressions.
Spencer from Spin Dr said they where an easy build, so no troubles.
Existing Vittoria tyres mounted with no tools (other then me) & inflated fine.
I'm sure after a few beers I could tell you the 170g weight difference is noticeable. On the road , yes, on the tracks no.
Bearing in mind I'm coming from a pretty good alloy wheel set in the DT Swiss 481.
Definitely stiffer & with 105kg of poor line choices very noticeable. But not to stiff in a bad way, you can feel the compliance.
Maybe a combination of the rim & the DT Swiss Competition, double butted spokes ?
They have a muted feel, chatter seems to be reduced, more time is needed to decide on this.
Overall happy with the wheel set, saving weight wasn't the intention, stiffness with a degree of compliance was the goal.

Did you order these from Newmen directly?

 

[RastaRuss]

From Zee Germans.
Shop around, a few of the Euro stores will have specials.
Easy shipping (if a tad slow) & I paid no taxes on entry to Oz.