agreed, especially if you look at the demographic which will benefit from this option, namely dudes who want a deep profile aero race wheel, but cant afford a carbon rim.
if my wishes come true and i can make it over to marymore velodrome in seattle and take some classes I might be into some of these come mid winter 
[quote=“tzusing”]Thanks for all this input guys.
you guys have me convinced i think i might do a small run of low spoke count.
but more than just releasing a rim with low spoke count i’m more interested in doing a low spoke count wheel set.
The retail price of the rim will prob be around 80-90 bucks.
but in 3 months time you have to factor in the weakening US Dollar and the increase in gas prices. And also factor in how much margin the lbs wants to make.
so 3 questions
what color should said low spoke count rim be?
how many spokes?
and if i do a wheel. straight pull or j bend hub?[/quote]
- Black or silver, low spoke count will likely be for racing so powder coat orange doesn’t really matter
- 24 and 28 is a good start
- Whatever the Sapim CXray is
If you were to do a complete wheel, what hub would you use?
Yea i’m def only doing one color. and i was leaning on black. not to say that racers don’t like funky colors.
Hubs. i have not decided on yet. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this and will continue to.
[quote=“tzusing”]
so 3 questions
what color should said low spoke count rim be?
how many spokes?
and if i do a wheel. straight pull or j bend hub?[/quote]
Color: Gunmetal or Smoked Gray. If you went with the smoked gray, I’d say try and do it all pretty and polished.
Spokes: 24 or 28. I’d say 28 for added strength over the limited weight savings of a 24.
Hub: Deep flange j-bend would be beautiful. Preferably in a matching color as the rim. I’d say no cutouts, but if you’re going for weight savings (again, I’m completely ignorant of the actual engineering possibilities and industry expectations) I would say go for a j-bend low flange or do big circular cutouts in the high flange design.
I think both structurally and aesthetically this would be a prime choice. I’ve always been a sucker for the darker gray colored componentry and for those self-conscious budget track racers I feel like this color might give them the slight piece of mind that whilst going fast they can dupe onlookers into thinking they’re rocking a real ritzy aero carbon rim.
Edit:
I just thought of this wheelset built up with either a slick double butted or bladed spoke in black and cringed with that sort of perverse sexual attraction I sometimes find myself inebriated with when I see a beautiful bicycle component/build.
Matte black would be cool maybe…
[quote]have a true V profile with no braking surface at all.
These will eventually phase out the Velocity Deep V Rim.[/quote]
HMM
polished silver or black would be my choices for colors,
I really like the idea of a polished silver wheel, to some nice highflange looseball hubs and aero spokes.
clean.
they look badass and i want them.
[quote=“tzusing”]Yea i’m def only doing one color. and i was leaning on black. not to say that racers don’t like funky colors.
Hubs. i have not decided on yet. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this and will continue to.[/quote]
if you’re trying to market the wheels to racers, use dura ace. no one fucks with campy on the track except people that like to spend too much money and those who own italian bikes.
best of all, if it’s dura ace high flange then you have people on the street and people on the track both lusting after it.
gun metal is my fav anodized color. good one. But i am not doing high polish so i will test and see how it looks matte.
shimano is a very possible choice for me as well. but i have heard they are hard to deal with… Will see.
Zipp hubs?
[quote=“tzusing”]
what color should said low spoke count rim be?
how many spokes?
and if i do a wheel. straight pull or j bend hub?[/quote]
black or silver, probably black but I don’t think you can go wrong with either standard color.
24 and 28 would be best but if you have to choose one 28 I guess.
choose based on your hub. DAs don’t come in low spoke counts and getting shimano to make a batch would probably be impossible or crazy expensive. While these are going to be race wheels the whole point is to keep cost down so I say look into getting a batch of custom drilled 24h dimensions, perhaps even slotted for bladed spokes(cheaper than cxrays). I really doubt the difference in drag in the bearing is greater than the difference between these rims and 404s anyway. If people are really concerned about it they can buy fancier bearings or pop out the seals.
I say do a 28h rim and a 32h dura ace hubbed wheelset.
[quote=“dutret”][quote=“tzusing”]
what color should said low spoke count rim be?
how many spokes?
and if i do a wheel. straight pull or j bend hub?[/quote]
black or silver, probably black but I don’t think you can go wrong with either standard color.
24 and 28 would be best but if you have to choose one 28 I guess.
choose based on your hub. DAs don’t come in low spoke counts and getting shimano to make a batch would probably be impossible or crazy expensive. While these are going to be race wheels the whole point is to keep cost down so I say look into getting a batch of custom drilled 24h dimensions, perhaps even slotted for bladed spokes(cheaper than cxrays). I really doubt the difference in drag in the bearing is greater than the difference between these rims and 404s anyway. If people are really concerned about it they can buy fancier bearings or pop out the seals.[/quote]
seen dimension hub threads strip one too many times to trust them.
miche hubs come in lower spoke counts don’t they?
How about low-flange custom drilled formula hubs. Easy to upgrade the bearings and with a rim that deep you don’t really need a high flange. Plus they don’t have the bo-bo cutouts. I would swap the bearings out for some ceramics lace them up with cxrays and you have a sick race wheel set.
[quote=“tarckatina”]
seen dimension hub threads strip one too many times to trust them.[/quote]
on a track or being abused skid stopping with a poorly tightend lockring and or shitty cog?
Once you start replacing formulas or dimensions with name brand hubs and plain bladed spokes with cx-rays or god forbid ceramic bearings it seems like your going to end up with a wheelset well upwards of $500 instead of at or below $300 and it’s not going to be any faster. Then again I’m not in the market for such a wheelset anyway just rims.
You could try to figure out where those neuvation hubs are coming from that are so popular on low end road wheelsets and see if that factory wants to get into the track game too. But I think the key is to keep everything generic.
i’m more partial to just getting one or two of the rims in a 24 or 28 hole drilling. hubs are a pretty personal preference (although most of the reasons have more to do with mojo than any actual performance).
although, if you’re going to do a complete wheelset, 28 rear and 24 front would be tits. just don’t radially lace the front wheel. i’m over that shit.
not radially lacing an aero front wheel is just stupid regardless of where you might currently be in your fad chasing career.
In regards to radial lacing that depends as much on what track your ride as anything else. I been told by many of the bigger guys that ride the shorter tracks like Forest City that a radial front just wont cut it for lateral stiffness on really short tracks. Granted this is coming from sprinters not endurance riders. Canecreek is wise to this and offers a crossed laced front wheel in both 50mm and 80mm versions.
As far as wheelset price goes I am talking about being able to make a REALLY good set of race wheels for well under $1000. You could easily build a sub $500 set of these with formula hubs, higher end dt spokes, and ceramic bearings. That’s about half the price of ANY other race wheelset out there with a rim profile that deep. Besides it’s not like kids are not dropping about that to lace up some phils to open pros.
As far as Neuvation goes I am pretty sure they are using Formula or Novatec. Their hubs are basically the same stuff that velocity and alex/a-class use for their wheels. The alex hubs use a set screw that holds part of the hub shell together while the velocity spartacus/uriel hub is the same thing as the Neuvation. Given Velocity’s choice to source formula hubs for their track wheels I would guess they are doing the same for the road stuff as well.