There are two basic wheels options available for interested buyers of carbon wheels. You can either go for carbon wheels or aluminum wheels. As you buy a bike, they come with aluminum wheels most times, but carbon is an upgrade.
Due to their superiority, they tend to cost higher than their metallic equivalents. These may actually be because they are built with light, stiff and strong material. Several riders and racers pick them because they believe in their high performance in relation to incredible handling and acceleration.
Since there are more details you need to know about this type of wheel, we've prepared this article to show you what is involved when testing carbon wheels and the issues found in them. Enjoy your reading.
Testing The Wheels: The Item You Should Consider
Testing the ICAN Aero Disc Wheels or any bike wheels, in general, can be a little bit tricky if you're not a professional with expert knowledge and the proper testing tools. In this section, we will explain the different relevant items that should be considered for testing when examining a bike wheel. Since our focus in this review is to discuss ICAN Aero Disc Wheels, so let's delve into the relevant items that should be subjected to accurate testing.
Typically, there are two ICAN Aero Disc Wheels. The rear wheel and the front wheel. The rear wheel features a plastic protector which is over the splines and a cassette that comes with a spacer. Also, it has an eleven-speed body. The front-wheel comes with only one protector. So, what are the important factors you must consider for testing? Learn from us.
1. Rims
The rims serve two significant purposes. Firstly, they help hold the bike's tire, and secondly, they offer a braking surface. For our testing, the rims of carbon wheels have a 55-millimeter section. The inside size is 19 mm, while that of the outside is 25 millimeters.
This is a good round size. Through a deeper section rim, you can enjoy the benefits of aerodynamics which offer excellent comfort by absorbing a bit of more road vibration. Besides, the most popular all-around performance ranges from 45mm to 55mm. In addition, with the sizes of the rims, your wheels will be less affected by the side winds.
It can be said that Toray, the current world's largest producer of carbon fiber, uses the combination of T700 and T800 carbon fiber to construct this specific rim.
The shape of the rim is quite rounded at the spoke nippers and continues to round on the sidewall. Descriptively, it is more of a teardrop shape.
There are ventilation holes in each side of the rim, which allow the evaporation of any moisture that gets trapped inside the rim. According to the website, these holes will fit tires from 25 to 40 millimeters. On the rims, there are holes at each spoke which give users direct access to the spoke through the wheels. This is an advantage, particularly when you need a spoke replacement. It also means that you will need rim tape. So, the wheels also come with some bright red rim tapes. Once you put the tapes on, you can run tubeless. This implies that you can either clincher the tube in there or tubeless.
2. Spoke Tension
There are twenty-four spokes on each wheel. For the spoke tension measurement, we discovered through testing that the front wheel is not perfect but very good. In contrast, the rear wheel is not too good. And this is because one of the measurements was out by 20% or more ( actually too tight). Even after a re-examination, the result still showed that one of the spokes was significantly tighter than all the rest.
3. Spoke Twist
Being an arrow wheel, it comes with flat, flatter spokes. Unfortunately, flat-baited spokes can sometimes twist and work against you. The image below shows the Test result of our test of both the rear and front wheels.
Figure 1: Spoke Twist Test Results
4. Wheel Deflection
We conducted both lateral and vertical deflection tests. For rear wheel lateral deflection, the result was 13 max, so 0.13 millimeters. The vertical deflection result was 20, which was 0.2-millimeter deflection.
For the front wheel, the lateral deflection result was 15 max, which was o.15 millimeters out. The Vertical deflection result was 12, which was 0.13 millimeters out.
5. Destressing of the Wheels
You should know that different wheels have different strengths. For carbon wheels, they are stronger of which we could have decided to push a bit harder during testing. However, this is not advisable because of two basic reasons. Firstly, the rim is further away from the hub ( so it's not stiff). Secondly, the spokes are sepim cx-ray, which indicates that they are not as beefy as the pilar spokes on the wind space.
Precisely, the carbon wheels are slightly more flexible, so it would be wise not to push much pressure on items during destressing.
6. Dishing of the Wheels
For dishing the carbon wheels, the tool has to be reset back to zero, set it on the wheel, and pushed the tip until it touches the axle. For the rear wheel, what we got was 0.2 millimeters, which is outrightly insignificant. The front-wheel shows movement during the testing, which makes it 0mm.
7. Hubs
Virtually all road wheels with disc brakes opt for a spline system. Mountain biking requires six more bolts even though they use spline as well. ICAN Aero Disc Wheels use spline. If you checked the clicks, you would notice there were four pawls. Actually, there is nothing super about this. For the slow bearing test, it's silky smooth. However, when it's faster, you will hear the clutch grabbing a bit there.
Moreover, even though the bearing is silky smooth, the seals of the clutch are quite tight but not overly tight. It grabbed the axle when moved backward. This is probably good, but it may indicate that you would be slowed down.
To disassemble the hub by pulling out the axle, you will need two 17mm open spanners. To pull the axle, hold the freehub body and push it out. The axle may sometimes be challenging to push out, so if you have a problem with the bearing due to contamination, you may want to buy a whole new body.
8. Clutch Engagement
Carbon wheels give about 26 clicks per revolution. This is why they tend to go "click and click," where some clutches with more engagements "buzzes" freehub body is not aluminum. It's steel. So, it might be heavier. Nevertheless, it's going to be durable. You're not going to get the teeth of the cogs bitting into the steel body anywhere near as much as an aluminum body. So, it's going to last longer.
9. Weight
The weight of the rear wheel is 860g, while the front wheel weighs 720g. So, the pair of wheels weighs 1580 grams. This is pretty good for 55 millimeter Aero wheels.
The Issues with Carbon Wheels
Due to the fact that Chinese manufacturers of carbon wheels have got so good over the last couple of years, there's really hardly anything to say negative about them. However, there are a few things we have seen. They are as follows:
The Spoke Twist
Six of the spokes were out of twists on the front wheel. The image below shows this.
Figure 2: Out of twist spokes
There is really no excuse for this situation because when building a wheel, it's very easy to ensure the blade spake is flat as you tension it up. So, this falls on the negative side of the product. However, it's not a big negative because it's easy to fix.See the video below to learn how to fix the issue.
· Spoke TensionThe spoke tension of the rear wheel was over 20 % too tight, and another spoke was a little bit too loose. The chart below shows this.
Figure 3: Spoke Tension Chart
When you think about it, a rim is consistently made perfectly round and the spokes exactly the same length. The nipples exactly the same size should be easy to get perfectly even tension on a wheel. So, why has one spoke slightly over the 20% more tension than all the rest? Well, that may be difficult to explain, but it is something that when you loosen it off, will cause a buckle in the wheel. So, you have to leave it like that. This also falls on the negative side of the carbon wheels.
· Spoke Length
The spokes were a little bit too short by about three to four threads. This is not a big deal because, in the long run, it may show up or may not. In fact, there were products built with a spotlight that was too short and never had a problem. Nevertheless, it is ideal to have the spoke length for maximum strength.
· Felt Lighter, Feel of Flaps, and Noise.
This may be because of its stiffness. Riding it definitely felt like you weren't pulling so hard to get up the hill. Also, it felt like less of an effort to accelerate ( quicker acceleration fraction). Carbon wheels tend to make a bit of noise as they travel through the air, particularly when you get faster. They become noisier, which may be due to the spokes.
· Road Vibration
Several people believe that riding on carbon wheels will make you feel everything. But that's not totally true because it felt the same. The main difference in the feel was like you’re gripped to the road– like floating on top of the road when riding.
Final Verdict
Now, just that we found a few imperfections in the carbon wheels and the testing doesn't indicate that they're not going to perform at the highest level. In fact, most Chinese wheels that have been tested lately and a few other YouTube channels out there testing wheels made in China show that the quality of ICAN Aero Disc Wheel is amazing.
