Our initial look at the wheels, here.
With just about all major players now producing carbon rims and these wheelsets now becoming more accessible you no longer have to re-mortgage your house and spend what you could buy a great bike with, to benefit from the carbon revolution. Looking more locally there are Australian based companies hand building carbon rimmed wheels and where the prices are even more affordable.
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| The old-school new age look, steel frame and carbon rims. |
The Good Edition wheelset from
Curve Cycling is their most affordable build but by no means are they a slouch, spinning up as fast and suffered as much punishment as we could throw at them. All signs pointed to a good build, as the wheels remained true during the test period, no flex or creaking associated with bedding-in.
The Curve branded hubs roll on smooth Japanese enduro bearings. It was noted during our testing period that the front hub is a little wider than other hubs ridden on this particular bike. During hard cornering the spokes would lightly touch the brake caliper. This could be easily fixed by shimming out the brake disc. No such trouble with the rear hub, the alloy freehub had a distinctive light ratchet sound, with positive engagement and didn’t show any excessive gouging from the cassette.
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| Underneath the carbon rim is a full size 2.2" tyre, fat rims |
Lacing the hubs to the rim were the reliable
DT Swiss Competition double-butted spokes, another sign of the solid nature of
this build. Additionally available through Curve Cycling and supplied on this
occasion was one of the best rim tapes we have ever used. They certainly have done
their homework in this area, the rim tape was easy to apply and during the test
period there was no air leakage.
How close is the caliper to the spokes, very close. We placed the cir-clip around the other way so it wouldn't touch.
A full carbon fiber rim features a 30mm
external and 23mm internal width, which should provide tyre sidewalls with plenty
of support. Fitting some 2.2” racing rubber was easy enough, while the internal
profile isn’t UST, it is happily tubeless-ready, the tyres snapped into place
on the rim and held there even while ridden at low pressures. We found the rims
helped to provide a wider footprint and increased grip and control through
various conditions we rode. And after rock strewn rides the gloss clear coat
covering black and white graphics still remained intact, more importantly not a
wobble out of the rims.
The rims
are the same across the Editions with these rims taking Curve’s Jesse Carlsson
along the Tour Divide and into second place this year. This wheelset with its
carbon rim defiantly provides more stiffness out at the rim and has pushed us
towards being converts to the wide rim ideal. We imagine you will be cheering
when your rolling on a set of these sharp wheels.
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| Curve branded hubs, competition spokes, a solid build. |
They said: Suitable for XC, AM and all round trail slaying. These hand built Carbon fiber MTB wheels are configured to compliment most riding styles over varied terrain. They feature a super wide profile that allows the use of tyres up to 2.5”. The layup of this rim allows for a nice balance of high-impact strength, lightweight and stiffness, whilst still maintaining enough deflection for comfort during those long rides and marathon races. In other words, they are stiff (much stiffer than many popular light weight alloy rims), but not so stiff to the point where they feel harsh on the trail.
