no name ebay wheelsets

I don't have any experience with chinese carbon but have looked into it a lot, it's still on the table as an option for when I do get some carbon wheels.

On the one hand, there are tons of companies on this side of the pond that import chinese carbon rims, assemble the wheels, and slap their own decal on them. They cost 2-3x as much as just buying the wheel from China, and the specs are identical (carbon rim, novatec hubs, sapin cx-ray spokes). There may be some question as to how well the wheels are assembled in China vs over here, but the big issue is what happens if there is a problem - the bigger chinese dealers (Far Sports, Yoeleo, etc.) stand behind their product, but from what I hear you've got to pay to send the wheel back to them, and the whole process can take a very long time. For many it's worth the extra cost to have a domestic company with (likely) better quality control and an easier process should you run into a problem.

I've heard a fair number of horror stories about chinese carbon wheel failures, but there are also tons of people that seem very happy with them. It's a tough call. We have a couple local companies that operate under this model, and while it's nice to support local entrepreneurs, and good to know the company is close by should there be a problem, they don't make it easy when they charge $1500 for a wheelset that I could order from China for $650.

You just have to weigh the good to the bad and have realistic expectations.

Are a $500 set of aero wheels going to stack up favorably vs. Zipps, HED's or even FLO's? No.
Are they rideable wheels? Yes. It's not rocket science to lace a wheel to a rim. As to whether they are dangerous... all wheels/bikes are somewhat dangerous to ride and have the potential to fail. Just because a Trek/Spec/Felt has went through a quality control doesn't mean it won't fail in the right circumstances. The modern China manufacturers are also fairly nice and on the up and up, as reported from people who have been to the factories (search weight weenies for the thread if you're interested) and as long as the seller has + feedback on ebay you can probably argue / claim enough to get the listed warranty on them (if there is one)

Are they aerodynamic?
Who knows. Probably not, but maybe. Which in theory defeats the purpose of buying aero wheels in the first place...

I think the biggest issue is that you simply don't know what you're going to get… a great, well-built wheel or a poorly built one (wheel building is much more than just slapping the components together). Then if you have an issue, you have no recourse.

Basically, it's a gamble. You might get wheels that are quite nice for $500, or you may get a couple of rides out of them, then have to scrap it all.

Edited by audiojan 2015-02-03 5:34 AM

Well i baught some last night, worst case scenerio they are a piece of crap and im out some money. I will report back though once i get some miles on them and also my initial thoughts.

Well I think the *worst* case scenario is the wheel fails during a high speed descent, causing you to crash and die. Not that I'm saying that's going to happen, just sayin'.

As long as you buy from a reputable dealer, you certainly do have a recourse in case of defect, but it involves paying to ship them back to China and waiting likely a couple months to get them back.

Good thing i have 2 sets of wheels now :-)

I bought a set of Yoeleo wheels from their web site last year. I had a spoke tear our of the hub on my Mavic training wheels, so I needed to get a replacement and I was able to get the Yoeleo 60-mm 23-wide u-shaped profile wheel set for less than I would have paid for a set of Mavic Ksyriums. I was a little over $600 all-in. The cross section of the wheel is very similar to the latest generation U-shapes marketed by the premier brands. If you did a blind comparison of the sections, it would take a real expert to tell them apart. I've got somewhere between 1500 & 2000 miles on these wheels so far and have absolutely no complaints. They look great and, so far, they seem very durable.

I did a number of USAC road races last year, and (at least in this part of the country) the various Chinese mfg carbon wheels seem to be much more popular with the road racers than they are in the tri community. You see a lot of chinese wheels in both road races and in crits around here. Not sure why this is, but my speculation is that triathletes as a group tend to have more disposable incolme than cyclists and are more willing to buy the latest and greatest. Chinese wheelsets on a tri bikes seem pretty few and far between.

A few things to consider as noted by others:

1. Do what you can to get a feel for the people you're buying from. Not all Chinese mfgs are created equal. Some have been selling wheels for a long time.
2. I don't ride in the mountains, so I don't do a lot of extreme breaking. Breaking over a 5-mile descent brings a whole different level of stresses and temperatures into the discussion. If that was my normal riding environment, I might have made a different decision on which wheels to buy.
3. How do my wheels compare to Flo 60s or Hed Jet 6FR or similar? Unknown. I'm not aware of anyone doing any valid testing. Compared to the premier brands, a lot of Chinese wheels come in at about 25% of the cost........I would think the major companies really wouldn't want to see performance numbers generated when the cost differences are so extreme.
4. Anecdotal internet info is just that. I've had two mavic rear wheels fail on me in the last 5-years. That doesn't mean Mavic makes an inferior product.

My experience so far has been 100% positive. I feel like I got a great product at an unbeatable price.





Edited by g_shotts 2015-02-04 11:48 AM

I had a set of generic Chinese 50mm deep wheels. Rode the heck out of them. Over 5000 miles training one season alone. Rear hub started to fail and needed work on the pawls. Then the braking surface started to pit and fail, then the rear hub completely failed one day. I never got around to rebuilding the rear hub given the braking surface was near done. Just picked up an other 50mm deep generic rear and rode the heck out of it too. I'd guess the first rear saw 10,000 miles total before it was replaced. The front was still going strong till the bike with the wheels on it was stolen.

I've done some miles on a set of Flo 60's since then. Flo's are heavier for sure but roll nicer and seem more stable in winds. I have some Vision Metron wheels now, but will wait till winter weather passes before riding them outside. The hubs on the Vision wheels are so nice, really looking forward to riding them.

I was in carbon fiber bicycle wheel of the world's biggest research and development and manufacturing base in xiamen, fujian province, China factory here there are dozens, and China Taiwan manufacturer, there should be 100 manufacturers. And I learned that, according to media reports in China fujian xiamen in this industry, the more prominent, exports compared with http://www.icarbonwheels.com/products/carbon-road-bike-wheels/and http://www.carbonwheelfactory.com/Carbon-MTB-Hookless-Wheels_c24,China's Taiwan have GIANT and SPECIALIZED OEM manufacturers, product quality is stable, but does not have its own brand, research and development and manufacturing levels and North America, the European market already