https://nextcycling.com/technical-info/
does anyone have any info regarding this brand. experience riding them etc? seems like they are big in the cross world and trail world and growing into the road world.
lots of things to like. hand built, local (to me), the head of the company is an engineer, quality dt swiss hubs with option of ceramic bearings, wide rim profile 19.5mm. seems like it ticks a lot of boxes off.
thoughts?
Looking at the blog, I see a few things that slowtwitchers will have issue with:
A 55mm deep NEXT wheel is going to perform similarly, aerodynamically, to a 55mm deep wheel from anyone else.
and
buying carbon wheels based upon the aerodynamic performance between brands is a red herring.
Looking at this website I see Alto Wheels, Tokyo Wheels, etc…
.
Ok lol,
Don’t know anything about them. But if they don’t know enough about their own wheels to match pictures with the product they are selling…?
(Look at their road non disc wheels in shop)
Or perhaps they don’t actually have those models in stock?
Maurice
thoughts on this:
"The rims are unique in that they are a filament wound fiber that wraps around to form like a woven sock, vs cutting out sheets of pre preg and stuffing that in a mold. The result is a pretty substantial increase in the carbon percentage by volume vs the resin, so they are lighter, cleaner finish, no risk of voids, and so on. We use that tech on all the CX, MTB, and road rims. I have a gravel rim that is still traditional construction cause its laid up heavy and got more impact resistance.
The rims are also 260C resin for better heat resistance in rim brake applications. Normal is 220C these days, extra good is 240C. The filament winding vs prepreg carbon allows use of 260C. Old carbon tech was 180C and those heated up and blew apart or warped on the brake track pretty often."
no idea what that means. but it sounds like they are more stiff as a result.
they are hand made (or so it appears), so it’s not just some open mold…
Sounds awfully similar to some bold claims of a new “proprietary” technology from another company…
I see nothing of interest or anything of particularly good value. Looks like a terrible website to me.
I see nothing of interest or anything of particularly good value. Looks like a terrible website to me.
how do you determine that?/
say for example you have a set of enve/zipp wheels. but no disc. and you had the option of using these instead (and it doesn’t affect your bottom line). would you? regardless of what you think, wouldn’t the disc wheel and equivalent front net you a few minutes over 112 miles? come race day, brake surface probably doesn’t matter quite as much if you’re a FOP cyclist anyways.
Is it tubeless ready? That would grab my attention.
they are (i think). which is what grabbed my attention as well.
I have lots of experience on NEXT wheels, as one of their earliest cx racers on them. I haven’t ridden the tall road wheels, but yes they’re tubeless compatible which is a big selling point.
The founder is an industrial engineer and 100% stands behind the product. Folks are right that they’ll perform aerodynamically similar to other wheels of their kind - but if you break one, he’ll crash replace it very cheaply. (https://nextcycling.com/shop/next-rim-replacement).
All the wheels are hand-built. The website stinks because literally all the money that’s made off the wheels gets poured back into either the business or into the sport.
I’ve had experience with breaking and replacing a rim (cx is hard on equipment, not an indictment of the rims - i smashed it on a concrete curb) and it was seamless. i also have five sets of his wheels
YMMV
thanks. i really want first hand experience (i know a guy who rides them and likes them, says no worse than zipp), of others who have used their wheels/rims during wet weather, to see how it brakes. that’s key for me. the rest is gravy really
Jerry is a long time patron of cyclocross racing, and he’s making wheels for a bunch of niche applications that the big manufacturers can’t rationalize supplying (like Lefty wheels, Cyclocross wheels with offset dishing, etc.)
Good guy, knows what he’s doing, isn’t ever going to screw you, makes solid wheels, and reinvests a ludicrous amount of time and money back into the race scene.
We’ve kinda reached a point where there are people doing similar things regionally all over the US. Some of them are ~meh~ at it. Jerry’s really good at it.
If you’re looking for the bleeding edge of aerodynamic research, NEXT probably isn’t your jam, but if you’re looking for one of the better guys hand building onto good rims with a ton of options and solid after sale support… hard to do much better.
Save your money. Get some Dish wheels instead.
Oh, and yes; tubeless ready, and he’ll tape and install valves for a small upcharge.