The long wait/weight is over! I had been in talks over the last several months with a rep from True bikes about the (hopefully) soon-to-be-available 36er carbon rims. A few months went by, and then he told me that Alchemist bikes was going to be manufacturing the rims, and that I should contact them about ordering one, if/when possible.
Although they are not yet available on their website I was very lucky to be able to order one early, and as of today, 11.1.2019, I am now the proud owner of the first [?] 36er uni with a commercially off-the-shelf carbon rim!
Just how light is it? The Nimbus stealth ll rim weighs in at just under 1,200 grams, or 2.6 lbs. I was guessing that the new carbon 36er rim would weigh somewhere in the range of 800 to 900 grams, which would be a pretty decent weight savings.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I was shocked, shocked to find that it weighed a mere 580 grams or 1.27 lbs!!! That’s nearly 1.4 lbs less than the stealth ll rim. It’s a 32 hole rim, (no 36 hole option…yet) and once built, it was a full 1.5 lbs lighter than the stealth 2 wheel build.
That’s a HUGE reduction in rotational weight, and I would call that a definite game changer! So Now you can actually brag about your “carbon footprint”!
PS: I’m told tentative pricing is 350 euro plus shipping if you live in the EU. 280 euro if outside the EU plus shipping.
Congratulations on your new unicycle and thank you for sharing the news, Terry!
This carbon rim’s weight is indeed phenomenal! With its 580g it’s 370g or 40% lighter than the current lightest 36in/787mm rim - which is the Quax RGB’s rim with about 950g, as far as I know.
I wonder:
How easy and safe is it to set it up [b]tubeless[/b] with one of those light 36in/787mm tyres?
[i]And more importantly:[/i] How does [b]the ride feel[/b]?
Naturally, it must be easier to accelerate and decelerate. [b]Fast and fun![/b] Controversially, some riders have reported having built wheels [i]too light[/i], reducing their capability in technical sections or getting shaken off more easily even on the street. The [i]"feel"[/i] might be highly subjective.
I hope to hear about yours and others’ future experiences with super-light 36in/787mm wheels!
You rather don’t. You just bought yourself some special waste.
The price sound okay. I wonder whether such price discrimination wouldn’t be illegal according to EU rules.
Congratulations on your new unicycle and thank you for sharing the news, Terry!
This carbon rim’s weight is indeed phenomenal! With its 580g it’s 370g or 40% lighter than the current lightest 36in/787mm rim - which is the Quax RGB’s rim with about 950g, as far as I know.
I wonder:
How easy and safe is it to set it up [b]tubeless[/b] with one of those light 36in/787mm tyres?
[i]And more importantly:[/i] How does [b]the ride feel[/b]?
Naturally, it must be easier to accelerate and decelerate. [b]Fast and fun![/b] Controversially, some riders have reported having built wheels [i]too light[/i], reducing their capability in technical sections or getting shaken off more easily even on the street. The [i]"feel"[/i] might be highly subjective.
I hope to hear about yours and others’ future experiences with super-light 36in/787mm wheels!
You rather don’t. You just bought yourself some special waste.
The price sound okay. Though such price discrimination might not be legal according to EU rules.
Whaaaaaat, €280 is pretty cheap for such a niche rim. I know they’re putting it on their bikes but I can’t imagine they’ll sell many of those either. That weight is ridiculous as well! Would 100% want to give that a go. Now we just need some extra long bladed spokes
I have been in touch with them too and decided to wait because they could not answer to my questions : how this narrow rim handle on a uni ? is it easy to fit and remove all the existing 36 tyres on this non deep rim ? …
For me it seems they developped this rim without considering uni market at all (32H version only and very narrow). I remember some years ago about Vee tyre for MTB, they involved some of us during the development process before going into production which was very nice. 36" MTB market is probably very very limited so I cannot understand why they managed this way for this CF rim
Price difference is just related to VAT, so fully normal but they told me a much more higher price (about 600€ if I remember well) !!
280€ + 22% VAT ~340€. It’s an italian brand, if they sell to someone in the US, it’s legal to not charge them any VAT. So assuming Terry rounded the numbers a bit, that’s completely normal.
I’m very interested if there is any feel difference between this and an aluminum rim that doesn’t come down to width and weight. There always is talk of different ride quality with carbon rims, and I’d be curious if you can feel any, since on a road ridden 36" you don’t encounter too many bigger bumps…
I’m usually in the “weight isn’t so important” camp, but on a 36" it may be a massive difference to how it rides in traffic, where you actually need to accelerate and decelerate a lot.
Did you measure the rim yourself terry? I know carbon rims are light but the nimbus II 24 inch rim (which is not particularly light is 584 grams. It seems almost impossible that a 36 inch rim can weigh the same even in carbon haha.
the 580g weight claimed by the manufacturer is accurate as confirmed by two different weight scales I have. Believe it or not, the original weight was 480g, but they decided to add more carbon fiber on the side walls and spoke holes which added the extra 100g.
I didn’t find such a light rim as replacement of my 36er steel rim in the past and so I decided to build my own rim. I rode it for nearly 3 years now. It costs about 36€, weights about 619 grams and it has 36 holes. The rotating mass of the total wheel was devided by two. Astonishingly I didn’t notice so much difference while riding. But it is much easier to carry.
The main problem was that my rim requires a disc break and it took 1 year to design a disk break mount for my square taper generation 1 Schlumpf hub. As shown somewhere here in the forum, my rim has the theoretical advantage that it can be dismounted into 2 parts for traveling.
I can’t imagine that a lite Nightrider on a skinny rim would feel very wide as they’re pretty round as it is. I know you love weirdly skittish tyres but thinner 36" tyres sounds pretty awful!
The skittish tyres comment was directed towards Piece Maker, but it’s interesting that you don’t find it feels any narrower. What PSI are you running?
