a local shop buys both frames (100+ per year - in fact, the fm098 was their "road" frame for several years) and wheels (similar volume) from dengfu.

frames are great, wheel build quality is not good. i worked in another shop for two years and we consistently had customers coming in with this shop's wheels, asking us to rebuild them because spokes would twist and snap, etc. (we were/are the best wheelbuilding shop in town)

be careful, too, that you aren't getting cx delta or cx sprint spokes. i'm fairly certain that dengfu is reputable enough that they won't screw you on this point, but other chinese trading companies will try to sell on cx deltas or cx sprints whilst claiming they're cx-rays.

Give Nextie a look

I just finished my third wheel set build from their rims. The "premium" rims are of very high quality in my assessment thus far

They do DT Swiss 350, unsure of the build quality however

Further they are some of the only tubeless compatible road wheels from the China contingent.

If I was in the market for 700C wheels I'd give these wheels from carbonspeedcycle a good hard look

http://www.ebay.com/...%26sd%3D291952200579

jaretj

I have a pair that I use for training and have put on over 10K miles on them so far and no serious issues. I did make sure that the spoke tension was even before I started using them and I did have to true them one time, just to get them back within <1mm runout. I live in the flat lands so I wasnt concerned about overheating and structural integrity issues. I've been using cork and KoolStop brake pads with them, but in the rain, they are not at all that great at braking. I would say that they had about 40-50' less stopping power than the new Zipps, which is pretty significant if you ask me. I got them because it was a time consuming process to change pads and widths on my P5 before races, so I just got a set that matched the dimensions of my existing race wheels.

Would I buy them again? I did for my secondary bike. They are definitely holding up as trainers. I had the stock Novatec hub and the only issue is that the 11spd cassettes bite pretty deep into the splines.

What's the price of those? Their website sucks. Even more so with no pricing.

A lot less than if you buy them from Alto cycling here in the US.

Ha! For those prices I'd buy two pairs of Hed Jets and be done with it.

From "Melody" at DengFu:

"As for our 25mm wide 60mm carbon clincher wheels with 11S DT350S hub and Sapim CX-Ray spokes, the price is $610/pair.


Shipping cost to USA by EMS is $65."

I just inquired what the cost would be unassembled but all parts included (spokes/hub/nipples/wheels). I am curious if there is a price break unassembled that I could then simply use to have a local shop build them up nice and tight for me. I'll share what I learn on this.

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"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
-Greg LeMond

Thanks for your input. May I ask how long ago you bought yours? I know they made some changes relatively recently when they added the basalt brake track, not sure if you have that version.

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"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
-Greg LeMond

About mid season two seasons, so I've used it for 1.5 summers. They were marketed as having basalt on the braking surface. While I've been using them, I don't really trust them to be made out of what they claim they are, you know? I use them with a certain amount of jurisprudence - that they are effectively a foreign company with no real backing or legal responsibility in the US. There's no way they are going to explode and kill me on the flats, but I definitely won't use them in the mountains.

I have had 4 pair of wheels from them with various depths and widths. I have found them to be great. I do think that the comments about braking and heat resistance might be somewhat correct. I burned up one set of clinchers on a really steep mountain decent. I however have done 100's of descents without any problem with their rims. The braking performance is not good compared to my road bike with aluminum rims, but I also blame the TRP brakes as not being as good as my road bike brakes. I however just got a new road bike with disc brakes and carbon clinchers from Dengfu and they have been great. Except that they are a bit on the heavy side, because the increased spoke count and discs. Anyway my $.02.

Thanks!

Regarding the breaking- what do you mean by "burned up"? Also, were you using their supplied pads or something else? I have heard the black prince pads toed in slightly are where it's at with basalt braking surfaces.

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"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
-Greg LeMond

What I mean when I said I burned them up. I mean they got hot enough that the wheel started to deform. Here is a picture of the damage. I was using Yellow pads at the time (can't think of the brand right now) and I had placed the wheels on my road bike. Normally they are on my TT bike. Never had a problem on my TT bike using the pads they supplied.
I included a picture, but for some reason when I am looking at this post it doesn't seem to be coming up.

Just heard back from Dengfu. Same cost assembled as it is for just the parts. They offered to throw in some extra spokes and nipples.

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"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
-Greg LeMond

Hey guys, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about Alto's specific molds and laminate structures. We make our rims at the Topkey factory in Taichung, where we did much of the composite work while designing frames at Cannondale. I'd be more than happy to provide details on our rim and hub manufacturing, don't ever hesitate to shoot us an email if you're curious!

Thank you!

Put tons of miles on multiple sets. Never any isssues.
Had a friend who imported prob 100 pairs and sold them stateside. Never had one issue as SR as I know. Now working and dealing with them and trying or order something different....well that's a whole different story.
What wheels are you looking for? He might have a pair or two laying around still.