I’ve got an athlete that saw this Princeton tri spoke/disc combo and was wondering if they were legit or not. I think not but figured the ST brain trust would have a better answer.
Legit or not? What says you?
Depends on what you mean by legit? If you mean are they legitimately the real brand, then the answer is no. If you mean are they legitimately carbon wheels that a rider could use for a race, then the answer is most likely yes. Some of these knockoff wheels are decently aerodynamic(sometimes a bit heavier), but the big question mark is the integrity and the longevity of them.
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+1 you’re not magically getting a Princeton wheel set for 90% off.
In addition to aerobean’s answer, it asks whether you’re willing to support a company that’s literally stealing another companies IP end to end.
Hence one of the reasons why I posted the question from my athlete asking if legit or not
Client of mine recently purchased a similar knock off from Bikedoc. Wheel he got has had some issues, but they’ve been really responsive and are sending him a replacement. Assuming he actually receives it, they’re standing behind it more robustly than most domestic brands would. Pretty impressive.
It seems like the CN carbon wheels seem to hold up fairly well (i.e. not a lot of reports of failures/crashes…mostly hub issues). In contrast, cheap CN carbon bars and stems (and even frames) have a very spotty track record.
If you want cheap(er) Chinese wheels then there’s better brands out there (Elitewheels, ICAN, Yoeleo to name a few). Yes, more expensive than the replica knock-offs, but they stand by their product and give good warranties and are still significantly cheaper than the likes of Zipp, HED etc
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I know you’re asking for someone else.
But these knockoff products always puzzle me. This product failing at speed could literally kill/paralyzed/gravely injured you. There’s no one standing behind the durability and QC of these products. Not sure why people would take any risk on that to save a few watts versus a legit mid tier wheel set that costs a couple hundred bucks more. What race are you trying to win that is THAT important? But, really, if it’s that important, then spend the money on the real thing!
Not to mention they’re openly stealing IP from the real company and deceptively marketing their products to be genuine. Pathetic and we as a community should not support this stuff.
Get some decent wheels from a real brand and enjoy safety and peace of mind is my vote.
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I was just going to post this. Yes with non China brands you are paying a premium, but you also can be sure you’re paying a company who has real skin in the game and doesn’t want to put a product on the market that can cause serious injury or death. Budget China brands literally do not care about you. I’ve seen safety products sold at a fraction of the branded price that fail spectacularly (as in people getting seriously maimed if they used them).
So… Your call.
I like the bit where we pretend big name companies give a shit about the consumer…you don’t have to look very far to see the problems people have with companies honouring their warranties for defective products.
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I’ve bought a number of rims and wheels from various manufacturers. I’ve built dozens of set for myself and friends. I think alot of it comes down to build quality with wheels, and I’ve seen name brands made very poorly too.
This said I broke a couple of carbon rims from China. And I’ve broken a couple of carbon rims from Western brands. In all instances it wasn’t the manufacturing issue. It was a big impact. In all instances all rims would’ve broke.
I’m not a fan of the sellers who are just ripping off brands and/or slapping counterfeit logos on it.
There are some good small brands and innovators from China and Taiwan. Good for them for doing their own stuff.
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I know someone who had a cheap wheelset like this. Rim delaminated on him, found it was actually mostly glass fibers not carbon. To their credit, it wasn’t a catastrophic failure though
I hate Chinese companies ripping off other company IP like knockoff replicas. I’ll never recommend those, that’s just fradulent.
But for the Chinese companies making their own branded wheels for the past 5+ years, the wheels they have been making are legit. I understand how someone not as familiar with them would think ‘such a danger! such a risk!’ but that’s been thoroughly disproven over the past 5, if not 10 years. There’s a brand that sells on Amazon, Superteam, that I’ve used extensively, and they were THE cheapest carbon wheels you could get anywhere back around 5-6 years ago. And even back then, I was amazed at how legit they were. Fast, well built, nice finish, nothing shoddy about it. Even the packaging was excellent. And lest you think it’s just me, now 5-6 years later, thousands of people have bought these wheels on Amazon and nobody’s writing how terrible they are, how dangerous they are, or how they got injured in a crash due to a manufacturing defect in the wheel. In fact, that kind of stuff is SO rare that it would instantly garner thousands of views in a youtube video if someone encountered it.
Carbon wheel making today even with the cheaper chinese brands, is well up to the safety standpoint. And the brands mentioned earlier, like Yoeleo, Superteam, etc., all do it well.
I’m now riding HED V62s that came with my TT bike - they retail for nearly $2k. But no joke, my $350 Superteam 50s are just as fast as the HEDs on my training rides, and my $400 Superteam 88s are even faster than the HED V62s. (Alas, I’ve move from rim brake to disc brake so I’m having to retire my good ol’ Superteam wheels, but it was a good run!)
Long story short, I don’t think safety is an issue anymore with the Chinese-branded non-knockoff wheels, despite their significantly lower price compared to the big brands.
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And a quick google shows plenty of delimitation issues with good ole Zipps…point being everyone knows ‘someone’…
The price the likes of Zipp and PCW charge for disc wheels is straight out robbery! There is next to zero R&D costs in any wheel design for the last 10 years, they are just taking the piss.
I have friends who have gone the Aliexpress wheels are they are super happy with the quality. I think we are well past the ‘I heard someones friends mothers uncles Chinese wheels blew up’ stage. Plenty of cheap and reliable Chinese wheels out there which are for all intents and purposes just as good and the Patek Philleppe style wheels…
You been missing all the major crashes in the pro peleton with these hookless tubeless rims blowing up on riders?
Are you running a higher risk buying the absolute cheapest “too good to be true” carbon wheels on the market out of China vs from a reputable “western” brand (even though most are still manufactured in the same factories)? Probably, but to say they’ll never have catastrophic issues or that they give a shit about consumers is quite the stretch.
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Please tell me you’re not charging your athlete for these types of gear questions.
If you end up in a wheelchair on one of those products, you have a company that has liability insurance and will pay the cost of that mistake one way or another.
China importer - not so much.
Those incentives create a tendency towards a certain type of behavior.
Plenty of media hype, but I’ve yet to see any credible evidence of crashing due to hookless tires blowing off.
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I’ve got a few sets of wheels from light bicycle, and I’m a big fan of reputable chinese manufacturers. I guess i didn’t make any particularly clear point. Its the companies that use major company branding to sell super cheap products that are sketchy. For example, with the wheels used to start this thread, I’d be extremely skeptical of riding that front wheel. A disc is easy to make, that front wheel isn’t, so at that price point it’s likely there are some hidden flaws in its construction, fiber bridging and the like. Lots of potential failure points if not made correctly
Did you ask KileyAY about the two on-the-bike catastrophic failures (and a serious hospitalization as a result) of the off-brand, I-imported-it-myself-chinese-carbon the last time you saw him?
Also, Marty Crotty (PCW co-founder) used to frequent this forum. I’m not sure he does at this point. But if he did, would you first ask him about the intellectual property concerns, or about QC of the knockoffs?
This is worth the watch (in 2x speed if you’re impatient). Topics discussed apply to open-mold and no-name carbon, not just knockoffs.
